Seated on an Amsterdam terrace in 1930, Jimmy Lucky is the epitome of cool. Sporting a dapper trilby and bow-tie, he leans back on his white chair and adopts a wary gaze. Perhaps he needed to be guarded: Jimmy’s ancestors were, after all, slaves from an infamous sugar plantation on the Suriname River. He himself worked tirelessly as a boxer, a barman, a tap-dancer, a waiter and a musician. Nola Hatterman, who painted this detailed portrait, shows Lucky with one fist clenched and a cold glass of beer waiting on the table. Behind him, an open newspaper is filled with announcements of performances – including a reference to “Sonny Boy”, a song by Al Jolson who became legendary in 1927 when he “blacked up” to play the lead role in the first talking film, The Jazz Singer.

Hatterman’s portrait is among the highlights of Black is Beautiful, a breakthrough show at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. More than 130 exhibits testify to the presence of black individuals in the Low Countries from 1300 to the present day. Ignored by historians for too long, images of black people have played a fascinating role in the works of Dutch artists such as Rubens, Rembrandt, Jordaens and Karl Appel.