As court painter to the Prussian kings, Antoine Pesne painted portraits of many members of the royal household. This includes the two children he depicted against a garden backdrop, a Prussian prince and his Black companion. Neither of them has yet been clearly identified. While we can assume that the child in the garden carriage is Prince Frederick William based on his clothing and other clues, the Black boy remains unknown.
The prince wears the orange sash of the Prussian Order of the Black Eagle, which Prussian princes were awarded at birth, over his silk dress decorated with gold braid. The slightly older Black child stands behind the carriage and shields the prince. He is identified as a servant by his livery, the striped sleeves of his shirt and the umbrella. The metal collar, parasol and earring refer to a European courtly pictorial tradition in which Black people were deliberately depicted with symbols of enslavement and exoticisation.
Even though we do not know exactly who the person behind the little prince Frederick William was, there are references to the biographies of Black servants living at court at the same time, some of whom were children. The baptismal records of that period provide a minimum of information about them: he could have been Abraham, who was named Frederick William after his Christian baptism in 1702.
