In conversation with Dr Arthur France MBE and David Lascelles
Missing Portraits
Missing Portraits is part of the Open History series, an ongoing commitment to promoting and celebrating equity, diversity and inclusion, and to combating racism. This programme invites visitors to engage in discussions about Harewood’s past by tackling urgent contemporary issues, working with artists to encourage understanding, celebrate diversity and explore Harewood’s colonial past.
David Lascelles and Diane Howse, Earl and Countess of Harewood, said:
“Although there is nothing we can do to change Harewood’s history and the source of the wealth that built it, we can be more open and inclusive in discussing it and therefore better able to represent the world we live in now.
So we are delighted that the first portrait in this series is of our dear friend Dr Arthur France MBE – a senior figure in the Leeds community and the founder of Leeds West Indian Carnival, the first of its kind anywhere in Europe.
We hope that by sharing Arthur’s story, and those of the portrait sitters that will follow, we can encourage positive discourse about our shared history and start to try to create a more equal society today.”
A glimpse into the past
Installed across four rooms of Harewood’s State Floor, Arthur France: Son of a Small Island featured a display inspired by France’s own living room. A collection of objects and memorabilia on loan to the Trust was on view, including a cricket ball presented to France by renowned cricketer, Sir Viv Richards, and a signed cricket bat from the West Indies tour of England in 2000.
Leeds West Indian Carnival
Arthur France: Son of a Small Island included an installation celebrating Arthur’s role in the foundation of Leeds West Indian Carnival, now one of Leeds’ most important annual cultural events, its history rooted in the resistance and emancipation of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean.
The display featured a costume designed by France for the 50th anniversary of Leeds West Indian Carnival in 2017. France has designed a costume every year as part of the celebrations.
epresentation of African Caribbean people at Harewood is an imperative in everyone’s understanding of our shared history, and in representing the people who enabled this place to come into being.
Dr Arthur France MBE
Dr Arthur France MBE said at the time:
“I am delighted to be the first subject of this new Missing Portraits series commissioned by David Lascelles and Diane Howse for Harewood House.
We have just celebrated the 55th anniversary of the Leeds West Indian Carnival which was launched not only as a celebration of Caribbean culture and heritage, but as a celebration of our forefathers and their emancipation.“
Missing Portraits
Dr Arthur France's portrait is now part of Harewood's permanent collection. The portrait is currently hung near Ashley Karrell's Missing Portrait of David Harewood, and various historic portraits of the Lascelles family by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the Cinnamon Drawing Room.
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