Four Indian Kings

6 March 2007

Canada's Four Indian Kings Reign Supreme in London, England

By Yves Théoret, Director of Exhibitions and Interpretation, Portrait Gallery of Canada

Some three hundred years after their original voyage and three decades after being acquired by Library and Archives Canada, the portraits of the Four Indian Kings have returned to London.

Shelley Niro

The Four Indian Kings are being loaned to the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the outreach program of the Portrait Gallery of Canada. This initiative is designed to make the Canadian gallery's portrait collection accessible both nationally and internationally, and has enabled the Four Indian Kings to once again serve as First Nations ambassadors to England in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition Between Worlds: Voyagers to Britain 1700-1850.

Jeff Thomas

The four Indian kings first travelled to London in 1710 to meet Queen Anne as delegates of the Iroquoian Confederacy in an effort to cement an alliance with the British. Queen Anne was so impressed by her visitors that she commissioned their portraits by court painter John Verelst. The portraits are believed to be some of the earliest surviving oil portraits of Aboriginal peoples taken from life.

In conjunction with Between Worlds, there will also be an exhibition of contemporary works by First Nations artists Shelley Niro and Jeff Thomas at Canada House, the Canadian cultural centre in London. Entitled Contemporary Voices: Shelley Niro and Jeff Thomas, the exhibition reveals a modern First Nations perspective on the Four Indian Kings.

The loan of the Four Indian Kings and the exhibition Contemporary Voices: Shelley Niro and Jeff Thomas represent the Portrait Gallery of Canada's first international partnership under its new outreach program.

Also Related…

First Impressions, Lasting Consequences, Four Indian Kings Online Exhibition by The Portrait Gallery of Canada
www.portraits.gc.ca/009001-2101-e.html

Virtual Vault: The "Four Indian Kings" 3D Gallery by Library and Archives Canada
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/virtual-vault/4-kings/index-e.html