Nathaniel Sparks was an etcher and watercolorist of landscape and figure subjects. Born in Bristol in 1880, he first studied at Bristol Government School of Art before continuing his art training at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. This figure study was created while Sparks was a student at the RCA and was chosen by him as his entrance piece to the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers in 1905. It was one of a large group of student works presented to the V&A by the RCA in 1916.

The subject is a young black man, described in the title as ‘A Native of Sierra Leone’. Black models were regularly used by British artists as accurately rendering African features and skin colour was considered evidence of artistic talent. The RCA probably employed black models for its students as London was home to a considerable black population by this time.

Sparks’s image appears to faithfully capture the physical appearance of the model yet the model’s identity has not been recorded. Set against a blank background and wearing a loose drapery, the subject has been removed from any identifiable time or place.