Details
Creator Sartain, John, 1808-1897, engraver.
Contributor Jocelyn, Nathaniel, 1796-1881, artist.
Jocelyn, Nathaniel, 1796-1881, artist.
Purvis, Robert, 1810-1891, sponsor,
McAllister, John A. 1822-1896, collector.
Title Cinque [graphic] : The chief of the Amistad captives / Engraved by J. Sartain.
Publisher [Philadelphia] : [publisher not identified]
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1841
Date [ca. 1841]
Physical Description 1 print : mezzotint ; sheet 27.5 x 21 cm (10.75 x 8.25 in.)
Description Bust portrait of the enslaved leader after a painting by New Haven, Connecticut artist, Nathaniel Jocelyn, engraved by Philadelphia artist and Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society member, John Sartain, to raise funds for the enslaved ship mutineers' defense before the Supreme Court. Sartain reproduced the painting, commissioned in 1841 by Philadelphia African American abolitionist and Amistad Committee defense fund member, Robert Purvis, following the refusal of the Artist Fund Society to display the original at the society's 1841 exhibit. Depicts the West African, attired in a toga, walking cane in hand, slightly facing left, in front of a background of African landscape.
Notes Title from printed signature of sitter below image.
Date inferred from content.
Printed on recto: fac simile of the original autograph.
Original painting in the collections of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, New Haven, CT.
LCP exhibition catalogue: Negro history, p. 34.
LCP exhibition catalogue: Made in America, #61.
See Ann Katherine Martinez's The Life and career of John Sartain (1808-1897): A nineteenth century Philadelphia printmaker (Ph.D dissertation, The George Washington University, 1986), p. 75-78.
See Hugh Honour's The Image of the Black in western Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), part 2, vol. IV, p. 159-161.
See Katherine Martinez's and Page Talbott's, eds. The Sartain family legacy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000), p. 66-67.
Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of engravings. McAllister collection, gift, 1886.
Description revised 2021.
Access points revised 2021.
Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Subject Cinque -- Portraits.
Amistad (Schooner)
Fugitive slaves -- United States.
Slave insurrections -- Caribbean Sea.
Men, Black -- Africa, West.
Black men -- Africa, West.
Enslaved men -- United States.
Freedom seekers -- United States.
Rebellions.
Genre Engravings -- 1840-1850.
Mezzotints -- 1840-1850.
Portrait prints -- 1840-1850.
Illustrator Jocelyn, Nathaniel, 1796-1881, artist.
Printer Purvis, Robert, 1810-1891, sponsor,
Provenance McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Portrait prints-C [5306.F.35]
Accession number 5306.F.35