A profile worth celebrating for Black history month is American-British Ira Aldridge (1807-1867), one of the first Black tragedian actors. Here you see him depicted as the character Othello from the Shakespeare play, in this exquisite bust of marble and metal rendered by the contemporary Italian artist Pietro Calvi. The texture of the marble looks like fabric, and contrasts with the facial features of Othello. Calvi’s work emphasized the uniqueness and beauty of his subject, lost in worried contemplation, a tear forming on his left eye.
In his youth, Ira Aldridge studied at the African Free School in New York City, which had been founded by the New York Manumussion Society for the children of free Black people and slaves. However, facing intense discrimination in the United States, Aldridge emigrated to England in 1824, and became an extremely successful actor, touring throughout Western Europe. Eventually he went on to found Coventry Theater’s Coventry Theater Royal. His performances achieved great acclaim and he is the only actor of African-American descent to have been honored with a bronze plaque at the Shakespeare Memorial Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Aldridge used his voice and success to speak out against the practice of enslaving people, a message that was well received in Europe.
This sculpture is currently at the Walter’s Art Gallery of Baltimore, Maryland.
