![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/files\/2010\/09\/smuts.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe works in the National Portrait Gallery are nothing more and nothing less than you’d expect from a collection of British heroes and icons. \u00a0A pale Lady Diana laughs with her sons. \u00a0Rows of Tudors sit in the same position, same facial expression, same symmetrical balance. \u00a0I can’t believe how much one of them looks like Jeremy Irons. \u00a0James Joyce looks as\u00a0weaselly as I’ve ever seen him. \u00a0British history was written by the British- either the intellectual elite or the monarchy. \u00a0That’s who’s represented here. \u00a0Over the span of the entire museum I counted two non-white Brits. \u00a0Maybe I missed a few, but the fact still remains that Britain is visibly a nation overrun by cultural and class elitism. \u00a0It’s no surprise, nor is it unique to the Isle. \u00a0Still, including a few of the notable \u00a0Black, Indian, or East Asian historical figures in the portrait gallery housed in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world doesn’t seem like too much to ask. \u00a0A city and a nation dedicated to fostering a people of many backgrounds should be dedicated to celebrating a heritage of many origins.<\/p>\n
The portrait which most struck me is of a man who wouldn’t have agreed with this sentiment. \u00a0Jan Christiaan Smuts was a British-South African who was a major proponent of\u00a0segregation between African Blacks and European colonizers. \u00a0Politics and morals aside, the military man Smuts (or his portrait, anyway) exemplifies what seems to be a perpetual process of one-upmanship in the British community.<\/p>\n
Portraits are, if nothing else, a statement that you’ve made it; you have the experience, you’ve earned the recognition. \u00a0Might as well show yourself off by hiring someone to paint your likeness. \u00a0Smuts takes it further. \u00a0A not-so-inconspicuous inclusion of a chest full of army pins and badges in the upper\/left half of the canvas serves as a reminder that Smuts is the real deal. \u00a0It’s the perfect visual representation of the superiority complex which Smuts clearly had. \u00a0I’m beginning to think of it as a “look at me” incentive; as mentioned before, all of the British officers depicted in portraits are white and they all wear similar uniforms. \u00a0Smuts puts his accomplishments on display to set himself apart from the pack. \u00a0It’s almost more a portrait of an ideal- a machismo, militarist ideal- than of a man. \u00a0Based on Britain’s imperialist tendencies, it seems like that mindset wasn’t unique to Smuts.<\/p>\n
He just broadcast it best.<\/p>\n