Zanzibar-born British artist Lubaina Himid created this work as a reimagining of James Tissot’s nineteenth-century "The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth)", but she removes the flirtatious naval officer and centers the women instead. That change transforms the story. What had been a scene of Victorian social intrigue becomes one of female presence, Black visibility, and shared interior life. The title still carries the weight of empire: “H.M.S.” signals British naval power, while “Calcutta” evokes colonial naming and imperial routes across oceans. Two Black women stand together on the deck (or maybe an enclosed viewing gallery) of a ship, facing toward a turbulent grey sea. The woman at right stands nearest the railing in a long cream dress, lavender-blue stockings, white heels, and a blue headwrap. Her body turns outward toward the water, while her head angles to the right. Behind her, the second woman wears a pale pink top and a long olive-green skirt. She holds the railing near the other women, creating a quiet link. Around them are several empty café-style chairs with yellow seats and thin curved metal legs. Slanted dark supports divide the view, and beyond them the sea is painted in gray-white, churning bands beneath a pale blue sky. The mood is calm, watchful, and slightly uncanny. Himid, a pioneering figure in the British Black Arts Movement and an artist long committed to recovering erased histories, often revisits inherited images to ask who was left out, misseen, or never allowed full subjecthood. Here, the women are neither accessories nor symbols of someone else’s narrative. They occupy the picture with calm authority. Painted in 2021, after decades of Himid’s work challenging cultural amnesia, the canvas feels both historical and immediate like a meditation on race, gender, memory, and the possibility of looking out from history rather than being trapped inside it.
“H.M.S. Calcutta” by Lubaina Himid (British, born Zanzibar) - Acrylic & charcoal on canvas / 2021 - Tate Britain (London, England) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #LubainaHimid #Himid #TateBritain #Tate #arttext #art #arte #BlackArt #BlackArtist #ContemporaryArt #BlackBritishArt
