This artwork has been identified as having links to a person connected with transatlantic slavery. This research is part of the Walker Art Gallery’s ongoing work to be more transparent about the collection’s relationship to Britain's colonial past. 

This painting by the Scottish artist John Ewart Robertson (1820 - 1879) shows James Aikin (1792 - 1878). He was a Liverpool merchant and ship-owner. He was active in the Caribbean and probably left £120,000 at his death.

His children benefitted from the profits of the transatlantic slave trade owing to the bequest left to them by their uncle, the owner of enslaved African people William Aikin (died 1837).

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This artwork has been identified as having links to a person connected with transatlantic slavery. This research is part of the Walker Art Gallery’s ongoing work to be more transparent about the collection’s relationship to Britain's colonial past. This painting by the Scottish artist John Ewart Robertson (1820 - 1879) shows James Aikin (1792 - 1878). He was a Liverpool merchant and ship-owner. He was active in the Caribbean and probably left £120,000 at his death. His children benefitted from the profits of the transatlantic slave trade owing to the bequest left to them by their uncle, the owner of enslaved African people William Aikin (died 1837).

James Aikin

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