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Seïd Enkess was a formerly enslaved man who traveled Europe and subsequently became an artist’s model. A plaster version of this bust was first exhibited with the title “Said Abdullah of the Mayac, Kingdom of Darfur” in 1848, a year which saw Paris in revolt as well as the abolishment of slavery in French colonies. The artist, Cordier, later reflected that the portrait itself was “a revolt against slavery, . . . widening the circle of beauty by showing that it existed everywhere.” Cordier, who specialized in portrait-like sculptures, retitled the portrait “Black Man from Timbuktu” for its second exhibition in Paris in 1851. Through retitling, the likeness of Enkess came to represent a racial type.An African woman served as the model for a companion piece in 1851 (Walters 54.2665). Regarded by 19th-century viewers as powerful expressions of nobility and dignity: casts were acquired by the Museum of Natural History in Paris and also by Queen Victoria. The Walters' pair were cast by the Paris foundry Eck and Durand in 1852.