Who is the boy? [6]

Peter Lely, Elizabeth Murray Countess Dysart c1651, Ham House

This is a series that could run and run  and one can be forgiven for seeing the unnamed African attendants as mere accessories - animate companions to the fruit and flowers they typically hold.

It's clear from the composition of the portrait of Elizabeth Murray that the artist intended no relationship between her ladyship and the attendant; despite reaching for a rose on his proffered plate, she does not acknowledge his presence any more than she would a table.

His eyes, on the other hand, are anxiously fixed on her face, as if to see his service is approved.  Pictorially it works, to affirm  for the viewer her superior status and beauty - white skin, blonde ringlets, sumptuous silk and satin garments.

the suspicion that this is a stock figure for pictorial not biographical purposes is supported by a young fellow in another formal portrait by Lely [or his studio], where the lad reaches for orange blossoms and Lady Elizabeth remains impassive. Obviously, her portrait is the purpose of the image and she'd probably be depicted in much the same manner if her companion were her husband or child. These are not depictions  of daily life and the details are all conventional. 

Peter Lely, Elizabeth Wriothesley Lady Noel c 1660s, Petworth

 Nonetheless,  there will have been African boys whom the artists in order to include them in the picture - no doubt for various canvases in this period.  Their identities remain unknown and unknowable, but the critical mass of their images indicates a substantial presence