Queen Victoria was one of the first in Britain to own versions of these much-repeated busts, following their appearance at the Great Exhibition in 1851. While Saïd Abdallah began as a portrait of a studio assistant and freed slave (Saïd Enkess), the companion bust, Vénus africaine, seems always to have been intended as a challenge to Western ideals of beauty.

Purchased by Queen Victoria in September 1852

No. 87