Picture of slave owner Sir Thomas Picton has been removed from the Welsh National Museum

A photograph of a slave owner who was the senior-most British officer to die in the Battle of Waterloo has been removed from the Welsh National Museum.

The ‘heroic’ portrait of Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton would not be displayed again until a group of artists completed a £12,000 commission to ‘reinterpret’ it.

The work at the museum in Cardiff has hung over 100 years, but after a rise in recent years there has been increasing scrutiny of Picton’s legacy. black lives matter Speed.

The work has hung at the museum in Cardiff for over 100 years, but in recent years there has been increasing scrutiny of Picton’s legacy following the development of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Despite being a war hero, the Welshman was also known as the ‘dictator of Trinidad’ and executed dozens of slaves while serving as governor of the island.

The National Museum of Wales says the new commission will retell Picton’s story from the perspective of the lives he influenced.

The museum’s director of collections, Cath Davies, said: ‘We have always believed that Picton’s history is difficult, it is complex, it is controversial and we want to work with young people to decide how they approach that history. want to reflect and how they want to interpret that picture.

The artists’ work will be on display in August next year as it is Trinidad’s Day of Independence.

‘We’ll be working on Picton’s interpretation with the youth over the next few weeks.’

The future of the painting will be determined by the Sub-Saharan Advisory Panel, whose director Fadhili Maghia welcomed its removal.

He added: ‘It’s almost like a new era in some ways, especially considering who he was, what he stood for, what he did.

‘It brings a whole new chapter in the context of the conversation about race, diversity, inclusivity.’

Picton was born on August 24, 1758, in Haverfordwest, West Wales, and remained the only Welshman to be buried at St Paul’s Cathedral after his death in Waterloo in 1815.

His portrait will be replaced by ‘Heger and Dichter: Portrait of William Lloyd’, a painting by Albert Houthausen, a Dutch artist who was fascinated by Collier’s working life in Trelogan, Flintshire, while with his wife Was on holiday in the area. 1930s.

In July 2020 councilors voted to remove a statue of Picton at Cardiff City Hall amid a Welsh government investigation into the offensive statues.

Councilors said the statue was an ‘insult’ to black people in Cardiff and ‘no longer acceptable’.

But last December advisers in Carmarthen voted against removing or renaming a monument to a local hero.

The monument has stood at Picton Terrace in the southwestern city since 1888.

Reaction to the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd In the US in May, Carmarthenshire Council set up a task force to review matters related to racial inequality.

Its dispatch included ‘Sir Thomas Picton’s Interpretation and History and Monuments in Carmarthen’.

However, most locals voted to keep the statue, arguing that ‘you cannot change or erase history’ and called the monument a ‘recognition’ of a Carmarthen hero who helped save Britain from Napoleon .

In July 2020 councilors voted to remove a statue of Picton at Cardiff City Hall (left) amid a Welsh government investigation into offensive statues. But last December Carmarthen’s councilor voted against removing or renaming the monument to the local hero (right).

Some of the more than 200 statues, streets and buildings in Wales have been identified with the names of famous Britons ‘associated with the slave trade’.