The Captain and The Mate (2017-18) by Lubaina Himid

In a series of paintings begun in 2016, Lubaina Himid explores the infamous history of the nineteenth-century slave ship Le Rodeur. 

While sailing from West Africa to the Caribbean in 1819, a virulent outbreak of disease caused many on board to go blind, including the French crew. The captain ordered 36 of the sick African captives to be thrown overboard, later claiming them as a financial loss under the ship’s insurance. 

‘I was struck by the horror of the incident’, Himid reflects, ‘but also by the dread of losing sight, especially as a visual artist.’

In The Captain and The Mate (2017–18), Himid depicts four figures standing on the deck of a ship, in a composition modelled on James Tissot’s 1873 painting of the same name. In Himid’s painting, ship, sea and sky are sparsely rendered in horizontal sections. 

Despite its glaring brightness and vivid colour, a sense of anxiety pervades the scene. The mate wraps a tentative arm around the captain’s frock coat, raising the other in a gesture of persuasion. The two women in the foreground adopt a tender embrace, glancing fearfully about them. 

Himid, who trained in theatre design, has composed the figures into a tableau, their stances and gestures open towards the viewer. Behind them, two pulleys disrupt the static composition, angling upwards towards the blue sky; the pulley is a recurring motif in Himid’s work, a hopeful symbol of agency and the transfer of power. 

All four protagonists in this scene are depicted as Black and all except the captain are dressed in contemporary clothing. These historical incongruities suggest a living history in which we as viewers are also involved.

‘I need you to ask who you are in the painting’, Himid explains, ‘and what you are doing, and what will you do when you leave the gallery.' 

This essay first appeared in the Mixing It Up: Painting Today exhibition catalogue.