The head and shoulders of a young Black boy, shown in profile to the right, wearing a white cloth collar, over a white doublet fastened in the front with five buttons. Lettered in the lower right ‘W.Hollar inu/1635’.

Though the specificity of this print suggests it was likely drawn from life, the identity of the boy shown is unknown. However the clothes he wears are typical of a servant in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. In 1635, the date inscribed on the plate, Hollar was in Holland where he may have encountered the child on whom this print was based working as a servant for a wealthy Dutch family. The Dutch were actively involved in the transatlantic slave trade, and it is likely that the boy shown in this print was enslaved and taken to the Netherlands.

The Royal Collection holds several prints created by Hollar depicting Black enslaved servants (RCINS 804317–804326, 804328). For other impressions of this print see RCIN 804323 and 804326. From 1635 to 1645, Hollar made five etchings of Black servants and enslaved people, possibly created as a way to demonstrate his talent - as noted in Black in Rembrandt's Time rendering dark skin in an etching required a high level of technical skill: 'there was a high risk that the close hatching grooves meant to hold the ink would break down' leaving areas of white where black had been intended (Black in Rembrandt's Time, Elmer Kolfin and Epco Runia, Rembrandt House Museum, 2020, p. 34).