0:00:15 > 0:00:18London is one of the most diverse cities on the planet.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23For centuries, people have been coming here and making this city their home.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27London has been transformed out of all recognition.
0:00:27 > 0:00:33Before photography, the only way to capture the history of the city was through art.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36- That isn't Covent Garden Market, is it?- Yes, it is!- You're joking!
0:00:36 > 0:00:41These artworks expose a city that both admired and despised its newcomers.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46A city rocked by racism, intolerance, and incredible social change.
0:00:46 > 0:00:52It is the earliest portrait of a freed slave and West African Muslim in British art history.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55In this programme I'm going in search of the paintings
0:00:55 > 0:00:58that tell the story of this amazing city of immigrants.
0:01:22 > 0:01:2818th-century London was the world's busiest port, it was the beating heart of the British Empire,
0:01:28 > 0:01:32and also THE place to come if you were an aspiring artist.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Not only did the capital offer you a way of making a living,
0:01:34 > 0:01:41it offered you the most vibrant, vivid backdrop for your work, and in capturing that backdrop,
0:01:41 > 0:01:45artists also captured the lives of the millions of immigrants who came here.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Now, London's immigrant history dates back 2000 years,
0:01:48 > 0:01:50the Romans and the founding of Londinium.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52I'm starting a little later.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Let me take you to 1733.
0:01:54 > 0:02:00At the same time, London's artists were kept busy with extravagant portraits
0:02:00 > 0:02:04of the city's elite, surrounded by their most luxurious possessions,
0:02:04 > 0:02:10including the accessory du jour in the early 1700s, one's very own slave.
0:02:10 > 0:02:16Then one artist, William Hoare, rocked the establishment by painting a freed slave
0:02:16 > 0:02:20in the same manner as wealthy white Londoners.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26Some people say the portrait I'm about to see is the most important portrait of its time.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29You're curator of 18th-century art at the National Portrait Gallery.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33You're taking me to see a painting I've heard a lot about.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35Tell me why I've heard so much about this.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40Well, the portrait we're about to look at, which depicts a man
0:02:40 > 0:02:42called Ayuba Suleiman Diallo,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45is incredibly important as the first portrait
0:02:45 > 0:02:53of a freed slave, and the first portrait of a West African Muslim in British art history.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55- And here it is.- Here it is.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57This is my favourite gallery in London,
0:02:57 > 0:02:59and I've been here a number of times.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02I've never before seen this portrait. Why?
0:03:02 > 0:03:07We've had this painting on loan now for about three or four months,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12it first came to our attention at the end of 2009...
0:03:12 > 0:03:18we knew about Diallo, and we knew this image from an engraving that was produced in 1733...
0:03:18 > 0:03:25but we had assumed because it had never been documented or known about that the painting itself
0:03:25 > 0:03:30was long ago lost, and in 2009 it came out of the woodwork,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33literally, it came up for auction,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36we immediately became aware of it, were very excited
0:03:36 > 0:03:41and we've had a relationship with this portrait ever since.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44The funny thing is, there are now three men
0:03:44 > 0:03:46with turbans in this gallery.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Me, Diallo and a sculpture over there.
0:03:49 > 0:03:55Images of black people, brown people in this period of art history are incredibly rare.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59They are, and they are rarely honorific portraits
0:03:59 > 0:04:03in which the subject is portrayed as an individual
0:04:03 > 0:04:09and celebrated as a human being, as a man of personality, character and individuality.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Diallo was celebrated by London's elite,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15even impressing King George II with his intellect.
0:04:15 > 0:04:22He was born in Gambia, West Africa, but was sold into slavery and sent first to America,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26and then to London, where he socialised with the city's intelligentsia.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34At the same time as he was being asked to sit for this portrait
0:04:34 > 0:04:37by his admirers and friends, who were English,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40they were also arranging for him to be bought out of slavery
0:04:40 > 0:04:44by a sort of public subscription - a posh version
0:04:44 > 0:04:48of a whip round. He was described as an African gentleman.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51That's always struck me as an oxymoron for the 18th century.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54How could an African of whom a nation, a race,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58a class of people they couldn't quite perceive on the same levels
0:04:58 > 0:05:01as themselves, could ever be called a gentleman?
0:05:01 > 0:05:07Remarkably, for such a Christian country, Diallo's devout belief in Islam was embraced and respected.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09His Islam is very present.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Apart from the garb which is more of his nation,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15there's a Quran around his neck.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18He asked to be portrayed in this costume,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20the costume of his own county.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24And the Quran, very nicely, is supposedly one of his own writing.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26He's got beautiful eyes.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31He's incredibly charismatic, it's difficult to look away.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36For an artist who had probably never painted a black man before
0:05:36 > 0:05:40it is the most incredible, subtle, thoughtful rendition.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Diallo left London just a year after this portrait,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46but his legacy far outlasted his stay.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49This Diallo portrait had two distinct lives.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54When it was painted in 1733, it taught London about African culture and religion.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Then, more than 50 years later, after Diallo's death, the painting
0:05:58 > 0:06:02became an iconic inspiration for the anti-slavery movement.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06At the time Hoare painted Diallo, London's other black faces
0:06:06 > 0:06:09were portrayed very differently by the city's artists.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11One such artist was William Hogarth,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15one of the most prolific painters and satirists of the period.
0:06:15 > 0:06:22Many of his works were comments on the state of the nation, and some featured enslaved foreigners.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25I'm fascinated by the differences between Hoare's Diallo
0:06:25 > 0:06:28and Hogarth's moralising art,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32so to find out more I'm meeting art historian Temi Odumosu.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Literally in the same year, you have William Hogarth
0:06:35 > 0:06:40representing Africans as they were more commonly understood,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43so you have them as servants, usually enslaved.
0:06:43 > 0:06:44We have an example here
0:06:44 > 0:06:50of William Hogarth's second plate of The Harlot's Progress.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54You have all these foreigners in this print that are acting out this
0:06:54 > 0:07:00performance of luxury, this black servant is part of that performance.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03He's turbaned, he's wearing livery,
0:07:03 > 0:07:08also he's got a collar which reminds us he's enslaved.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11He's an excess, is not just that he's a servant
0:07:11 > 0:07:15who's there to do the linens or cook food.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22A Harlot's Progress is a series of paintings
0:07:22 > 0:07:25that tells the story of a country girl who went to London
0:07:25 > 0:07:29and became a prostitute. Even though the story is fictitious,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32the sketch that Temi is showing me shares a lot
0:07:32 > 0:07:35with portraits of real people at the time.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38The negative images of Africans
0:07:38 > 0:07:42which were consolidated through literature and the visual arts,
0:07:42 > 0:07:47they really stuck, and that was what entertained 18th-century audiences
0:07:47 > 0:07:51both on the stage and also in print culture.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55I'm fascinated by the duality between the Hoare and the Hogarth.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58What's going on in the London psyche?
0:07:58 > 0:08:05This black boy in Hogarth's image is a trope, a metaphor for luxury,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08for the expansion of empire, for foreignness,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11the invasion of foreign, which Hogarth was averse to,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15and the black boy was a familiar part of literature, by that point.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20In fact, there's a famous poem, The Character of a Town Miss,
0:08:20 > 0:08:22a high-class prostitute, who says that
0:08:22 > 0:08:25she always has to have two implements about her -
0:08:25 > 0:08:31a blackamoor and her little dog, for without these she would be neither fair nor sweet.
0:08:31 > 0:08:38Whereas Hoare's portrait is much more a representation of a real person...who exceeded himself.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45In the mid-1700s, London's population was around 600,000,
0:08:45 > 0:08:50home to immigrant communities, including Jews, French Protestants and Greek Christians.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55At the same time, the rapidly expanding Port of London
0:08:55 > 0:08:58brought sailors and merchants here from all over the world.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Artworks showing these transient visitors are rare,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05but I've been invited to the Museum of London,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08where curator Pat Hardy is opening up the stores,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11to show me proof that exotic faces
0:09:11 > 0:09:14were part of the scenery, in some areas of the city.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17What painting is that, Pat?
0:09:17 > 0:09:20This is called Fresh Wharf, London Bridge
0:09:20 > 0:09:22and it's by a painter
0:09:22 > 0:09:28called William Marlow and it was painted in about 1762.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31We know that from all these landmarks.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35You can see St Paul's Cathedral here, you've got London Bridge,
0:09:35 > 0:09:39which was covered with houses and shops until about 1762.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41As they are no longer there, it must be after that.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44- That's obviously the River Thames? - That's the Thames.
0:09:44 > 0:09:50But as we move along the canvas, suddenly our eye alights upon
0:09:50 > 0:09:53this figure, in oriental dress, here.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Initially he's not hugely conspicuous,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59but as soon as you do spot him,
0:09:59 > 0:10:03he becomes mesmerising and you can't take your eye off him.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05You start to ask yourself questions.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07What he is doing there?
0:10:07 > 0:10:13Why is this figure in 1762 standing on a wharf in the middle of London?
0:10:13 > 0:10:16And what he seems to be doing is unloading,
0:10:16 > 0:10:18or supervising the unloading,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21of these bails, which had come off on this ship.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25Fresh Wharf was in the Pool of London,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27the busiest part of the Thames.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31By the late 1700s, the quays between the Tower and London Bridge
0:10:31 > 0:10:34welcomed thousands of foreign ships every year.
0:10:34 > 0:10:40It was obviously a huge conduit for people and goods from all over the world.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43This sort of painting shows that this was happening.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47We see these little hidden characters,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50in hidden paintings, popping up once we start analysing them.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54What's interesting about this is he's a regular character
0:10:54 > 0:10:56in the painting, he's not editorialised,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00- he's not diminished at all. It's reportage, in a sense.- Exactly.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03But the merchants didn't just stay by the river,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07they traded their goods right across the capital, as Pat is about to show me.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12We call these Hidden Paintings. These are properly hidden.
0:11:12 > 0:11:13What is..?
0:11:13 > 0:11:17- That isn't Covent Garden market, is it?- It is.- You're joking?
0:11:17 > 0:11:20- These arches are still there. - They are.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22And we've got St Paul's Church here.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24So, we're looking west towards St Paul's.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27- So the piazza's here, right in the middle?- Yes.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31You can see there's a lot of activity going on in the market
0:11:31 > 0:11:38and again, as we look more closely, we see a figure who is in
0:11:38 > 0:11:42- his own space, so he does stand out somewhat.- Look at that.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46- Who is that?- Again, we have another Oriental -
0:11:46 > 0:11:52possibly sailor, seaman - who is now in the market itself,
0:11:52 > 0:11:54having possibly come up from the wharf,
0:11:54 > 0:12:00with his goods - possibly fresh fruit or vegetables - for sale.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02He's seeing it to the final destination.
0:12:02 > 0:12:08What does this guy, again a solitary figure in a massive canvas,
0:12:08 > 0:12:09what is his presence telling us?
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Because he's not looked at, he's not being treated as some
0:12:12 > 0:12:18sort of exotic, or circus or freak show. He is perfectly entitled
0:12:18 > 0:12:21to be there. No-one's taking much notice of him and he's just
0:12:21 > 0:12:25going about his business, as any London merchant would be doing.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27It all seems to be about the river.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30It does, but everything ends up in the centre of the city.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Covent Garden was London's busiest fruit and veg market
0:12:38 > 0:12:42when Scott painted it, but that's not the only reason
0:12:42 > 0:12:47our mysterious foreign sailor might have come here. The square was also home to numerous gambling dens,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51brothels and ladies of the night, who were even described in their own guide book -
0:12:51 > 0:12:54Harris' List of Covent Garden Ladies.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Since Scott put brush to canvas, the market has changed
0:12:57 > 0:13:04beyond all recognition and that lone foreign face has made way for millions more.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06But of the two paintings that Pat showed me,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09it's the first one, Fresh Wharf, that's really intrigued me.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16This is where Marlow painted Fresh Wharf.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Things have changed in the 250 years since he depicted it.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25This is now the financial centre of London, but back then, this was the heartbeat of the city.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28Wharfs like this, up and down the length of the Thames,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31were teeming with materials coming into the city,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33with produce and, most importantly, with people.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42When I asked historian Jerry White to help explain how Marlow's Fresh Wharf
0:13:42 > 0:13:45fits in to the story of London, he suggested we take to the river.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Jerry, how different is the London of today to Marlow's, 250 years ago?
0:13:52 > 0:13:55Well, of course, it's a much smaller city.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Then it was a city of about 750,000.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01You could walk around it from one end to another.
0:14:02 > 0:14:03And this river has changed hugely.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08It was a working river. This was the lifeblood of London.
0:14:08 > 0:14:14At any one day in the 1750s or 1760s, 3,500 vessels would be filling
0:14:14 > 0:14:18this river, from London Bridge down to Wapping.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23Ships would come to London from every port in the world -
0:14:23 > 0:14:25from the West Indies to bring sugar,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28from the East Indies to bring spices and tea,
0:14:28 > 0:14:31from the Americas to bring tobacco.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34You would have had sailors from Bengal,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38Chinese sailors, as well, and then there would have been
0:14:38 > 0:14:41black sailors from the West Indies and from America.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46An almost impossible question to answer,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49- but can you imagine London without the river?- It simply wouldn't exist.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54This is a city whose history is based on trade
0:14:54 > 0:14:58and the trade was the river, it was London's lifeblood.
0:14:58 > 0:15:04The people who sailed the ships that brought things to London
0:15:04 > 0:15:08and took things away, they were the people who kept this city running.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10Jerry, give me a flavour of what life was like in London,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13when all these thousands of people from all over the world
0:15:13 > 0:15:16were coming in from all over the world, via the Thames.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20You've got, on both sides of the river, particularly in Wapping on the north bank
0:15:20 > 0:15:25and around Rotherhithe on the south, you have, in essence,
0:15:25 > 0:15:29maritime towns grafted on to London,
0:15:29 > 0:15:37catering for every need of the ships and the men who sailed them,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40and in those townships, you've got shops, pubs and, of course,
0:15:40 > 0:15:42you've got women.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46And you've got brothels, bawdy houses, lodging houses,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49where the sailors are staying.
0:15:51 > 0:15:57These maritime towns were serving the ships and sailors of the East India Trading Company,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01which brought goods to London from the Indian subcontinent and China.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04The majority of the sailors returned home with their ships,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08but a small number of Chinese and Lascar, or Indian, sailors
0:16:08 > 0:16:12settled in London for good and founded their own communities here.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16The most notorious at the time, was the fledgling Chinatown, in Limehouse.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22We know that there was a Chinese presence
0:16:22 > 0:16:26in this part of East London by the end of the 18th century,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29because we read in the newspapers
0:16:29 > 0:16:34of tremendous fights between Chinese sailors and Lascar sailors,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37who were from the Indian subcontinent, mainly Bengali,
0:16:37 > 0:16:42who are fighting with machetes and knives.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47Limehouse Chinatown was home to just 300 people,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50but it perplexed and fascinated Londoners.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54Newspapers were obsessed with the darker side of the community
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and their reports created an image of devilish,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59opium-smoking Chinese men,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02preying on sweet, innocent English women.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05There was a Chinese community in Limehouse until the area
0:17:05 > 0:17:10was bombed in World War Two and its residents moved to Soho.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17The trade that came down the Thames sparked one of
0:17:17 > 0:17:20the biggest expansions the city has ever seen.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23New docks, massive engineering projects, sprung up everywhere.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25The developers got rich.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28But it wasn't just the developers who seized the opportunity.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Somebody needed to build the city and dedicated labour was required.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37This led to one of the country's biggest economic migrations ever.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Guess what? The Irish were coming.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43As London's artists began to catalogue the changing face
0:17:43 > 0:17:45of the city, the Irish labourers who built it
0:17:45 > 0:17:48inevitably became part of the picture, too.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55I'm back at the Museum of London, where Pat Hardy is showing me how.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59This is a wonderful painting, by an artist called James Holland,
0:17:59 > 0:18:00of Hyde Park Corner.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Painted in 1833,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07it introduces this theme of the whole construction of London
0:18:07 > 0:18:10and the demolition of London, which was going on at the same time,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14and it was fuelled by this migrant workforce,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18which came to be perceived very much as the Irish community.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Where are the Irish in this picture?
0:18:21 > 0:18:24We can see a lot of construction going on down here,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27where they may have been digging up the road for water mains.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32We can see these little patches of red colour, through their hats,
0:18:32 > 0:18:37and again that became increasingly perceived to be an Irish worker,
0:18:37 > 0:18:43wearing a hat he would have worn in the field, as an agricultural worker,
0:18:43 > 0:18:45and it's transported to the city.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48- So it's almost like a red hat means you're Irish?- Yes.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Red hats as shorthand for Irish builders
0:18:52 > 0:18:55tells us that they were so central to the development of the city
0:18:55 > 0:18:59in the early 1800s that they didn't even need to be painted in full.
0:18:59 > 0:19:05But in 1845, the potato famine in Ireland forced a million people to leave the country.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Tens of thousands came to London in search of work,
0:19:09 > 0:19:14and as the city's Irish population swelled, their treatment by its artists began to change.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17We have the building of St Katherine's Dock here,
0:19:17 > 0:19:25in 1827, which is similar to the oil we saw of Hyde Park,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28in that a couple of figures are personalised at the front.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30Whereas, when we move on
0:19:30 > 0:19:34to mid-century, to the late 1860s -
0:19:34 > 0:19:36this is the building of Blackfriars Bridge -
0:19:36 > 0:19:40the figures are much smaller and not individualised.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43So what does that change signify?
0:19:43 > 0:19:48It means that the sheer weight of numbers of immigrants
0:19:48 > 0:19:52meant that they were increasingly perceived as a threat -
0:19:52 > 0:19:58taking up jobs that London-born labourers thought
0:19:58 > 0:20:02that they ought to have and they were coming in at cheaper rates,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05so it's a much more negative lack of individuality.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11This negativity quickly transferred into artworks featuring the Irish.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16We do have an example here in the collection,
0:20:16 > 0:20:23which is called Two Pats Sitting On A Wheelbarrow, Outside Lothbury in Bank.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27It's an extraordinary little drawing, for the period,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29of two Irish figures,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33again identifiable by their dress, with these hats.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36This seems like quite a gentle caricature,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39not perhaps the sort of caricature we'd recognise today.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44It's not as negative a stereotype as we see coming out the mid-century
0:20:44 > 0:20:49in journals like Punch, which had a series of cartoons
0:20:49 > 0:20:55depicting the Irish as monkeys, following Darwin's Origin of Species,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58which are definitely racialised
0:20:58 > 0:21:03and that continued, really, throughout the 19th century.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06As their numbers increased, their threat registers.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09- There's a change in the art? - Yes, they're seen
0:21:09 > 0:21:12as an economic threat, because they were economic migrants.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16How much do do you think these negative images of the Irish,
0:21:16 > 0:21:22through popular art, created this racism
0:21:22 > 0:21:26we have for the Irish that's abided for the past 200 years?
0:21:26 > 0:21:32Because they were perceived to be fact, they're not passive things in their own right -
0:21:32 > 0:21:37they are actively informing and engaging with society,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40as art stereotypes - so, yes,
0:21:40 > 0:21:45because of this negativity, which did solidify from the 1850s,
0:21:45 > 0:21:50I think they did have a very powerful effect on perceptions of the Irish,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54particularly in London, where they were at their greatest concentration.
0:21:58 > 0:22:04Anyone who has lived in London is well aware of the contribution of the Irish community,
0:22:04 > 0:22:09but not even I realised quite how much of this amazing city they built with their own hands,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11and it's fascinating, when you look at their story, through art,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15there is definitely a reaction to their presence.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19Clearly, for the Irish in London, there was a price to pay for being here.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Up until this point, we've been looking at art painted about immigrants.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28We haven't seen anything painted BY immigrants,
0:22:28 > 0:22:29so I need to rectify that.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34I've brought myself to a non-descript North London street - I used to live round the corner -
0:22:34 > 0:22:37and there's a gallery here specialising in paintings by Jewish immigrants.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42Thanks to waves of migration over hundreds of years,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46London's Jewish community was well established by the 19th century.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50Most artists came from wealthy backgrounds, but the rich also supported
0:22:50 > 0:22:53aspiring artists from poorer, recently-arrived families.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56The Ben Uri Gallery is the only gallery in Europe
0:22:56 > 0:23:00that's dedicated to Jewish art and they've been kind enough
0:23:00 > 0:23:03to take works out of storage to show me.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06That's amazing, that is beautiful.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09It's called Rabbi and Rabbitzin.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13The artist was called Mark Gertler. It was painted in 1914
0:23:13 > 0:23:17in the East End, probably in his mother's kitchen in Spitalfields.
0:23:19 > 0:23:20When Gertler painted this,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24more than 120,000 Jews were living in London.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28The population was swelled from the 1890s by an influx of Jews
0:23:28 > 0:23:31fleeing persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34They settled around Whitechapel, in the East End,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38in an area that quickly became an overcrowded, impoverished ghetto.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41When Gertler was born in 1891,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44he was the 26th person living in one house
0:23:44 > 0:23:49and his early life in the East End shaped his career as an artist.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53He was part of a group who became known as the Whitechapel Boys.
0:23:53 > 0:24:00They all came out of Whitechapel and were all immigrants themselves or the sons of immigrants.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04They had brought with them this very traditional way of life
0:24:04 > 0:24:09and the fact that he's executed this work in quite a modern way,
0:24:09 > 0:24:15to depict such a traditional way of life, warns you how this way of life is at threat.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21The Whitechapel Boys experimented with abstract techniques to express their opinions.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26I find that incredibly haunting. You're drawn to the eyes and there's a kind of bleakness
0:24:26 > 0:24:29- an emptiness behind the eyes almost. - I think the eyes are so large,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33that you engage with them emotionally and, also,
0:24:33 > 0:24:38he deliberately made the hands very large and very workmanlike.
0:24:38 > 0:24:44- He wanted to show suffering and a life that had known hardship. - No sign of luxury.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47No, there is quite a lot of tension in the painting
0:24:47 > 0:24:49and also, from the modern point of view,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51if you look at all the still-life objects,
0:24:51 > 0:24:53they're all seen from different angles,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57you couldn't actually see them all from those angles at the same time,
0:24:57 > 0:25:02so again, he's experimenting with modern techniques of cubism,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06post-impressionism, simplifying everything,
0:25:06 > 0:25:11and, thereby, making it stronger and perhaps more emotive.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Gertler became one of the leading lights of the modernist movement.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19Thanks to an organization called the Jewish Educational Aid Society,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23he was able to study at the Slade, one of the leading art schools in London.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28But the second painting Sarah and Rachel are showing me was from a very different point of view.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31The artist didn't live in the East End.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34This is quite different from the last painting. Tell me about this, Rachel.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38This is painted by woman artist called Amy Drucker.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40It's painted in 1932
0:25:40 > 0:25:43and it's a painting of the quintessential emigre.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50It's such a classic scene of immigration and we see quite clearly
0:25:50 > 0:25:54this was set in the East End, because we have the figure in the background there
0:25:54 > 0:25:59of a costermonger, or street seller, of fruit and veg with his barrow -
0:25:59 > 0:26:01the classic East End image.
0:26:01 > 0:26:07And also, these people are outside, in a murky, gloomy world
0:26:07 > 0:26:12and they're excluded from the lovely bright lights and life going on
0:26:12 > 0:26:15in the restaurant or pub behind them.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19Unlike Gertler, Amy Drucker's family were part of a much earlier
0:26:19 > 0:26:21community of Jewish immigrants.
0:26:21 > 0:26:27Perhaps that's why, unlike his painting, this one feels like the observation of an outsider.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30The title, For He Had Great Possessions,
0:26:30 > 0:26:31I think is ironic.
0:26:31 > 0:26:38He may have lost possessions in the Depression, but what he has is the greatest possession of all -
0:26:38 > 0:26:41his family. And obviously the unit will stay together
0:26:41 > 0:26:44and travel wherever they need to.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49Well, I suppose there's that sense of movement
0:26:49 > 0:26:52because the Jewish story is about never settling,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56never being allowed to settle, constantly in search of peace.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58The wandering Jew.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00This sense of never settling.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04I wonder, how much have you and the Jewish community in London
0:27:04 > 0:27:07learned through the art of the immigrant Jews?
0:27:07 > 0:27:12I think we've learned a lot about the history of the time
0:27:12 > 0:27:16and the people and the sort of life they brought with them.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Art from the early 1900s also gives us an insight
0:27:21 > 0:27:24into the wealthier sides of the Jewish community.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26This 1921 painting
0:27:26 > 0:27:28is by Solomon J Solomon,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31whose family had been in London for generations,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34and were well established in fashionable society.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37It is almost unrecognisable as a painting of a Jewish family,
0:27:37 > 0:27:41but perhaps that's because the immigrant wave that brought
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Solomon's family here had integrated into the city.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48Suddenly, they weren't being defined by their immigrant status,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51they were being defined by their social status.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01My journey ends around the early 1900s.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Our immigrants have become integrated, they are, in fact, now Londoners.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09The art I've seen has made a massive impression on me,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12from those early signs of foreign sailors in Covent Garden,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15to the terrible portrayal of the Irish.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19But the one painting I simply can't get out of my head
0:28:19 > 0:28:20is the Diallo.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26I find it absolutely incredible that,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29in a city steeped in more than a century of slavery,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33this astonishing man can be painted, captured as an equal,
0:28:33 > 0:28:35not defined by his foreignness.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42This painting actually managed to influence London and change history
0:28:42 > 0:28:46and there are not many paintings you can say that about.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49There are thousands of publicly-owned paintings
0:28:49 > 0:28:52hidden from view. Now, you can see many of them
0:28:52 > 0:28:57on the BBC website at:
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:04 > 0:29:07E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk