A world of ideas
The boy’s Victorian suit is made from Dutch wax-printed cotton, whose origins lie in Europe’s trade routes with Indonesia and Africa. The stars on the celestial globe have been renamed after famous black musicians. Trumpet Boy is from a series called Planets in My Head, which explores Enlightenment ideas of education, discovery, opportunity and reason. The Foundling Hospital was a product of the Enlightenment belief that individuals could improve their lives and the lives of others through education. Trumpet Boy also speaks to the role that music played at the Hospital.
About the artist
Yinka Shonibare CBE, RA is a British-Nigerian artist and a Foundling Fellow. His work explores issues of cultural identity, race and colonialism, often by re-imagining well known works of art, particularly British art of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Some of Shonibare’s most famous works are adaptions of paintings by William Hogarth and Thomas Gainsborough.
Trumpet Boy
2010
Yinka Shonibare CBE
Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, globe, cornet, leather and steel base plate
Purchased in 2017 with the assistance of Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the artist, Larissa Joy, Chris Cotton, Jamie and Julia Korner, Annie Mackeson Sandbach, Caro Howell, an anonymous donor and others, to whom we are very grateful.