Illustration after the romanticized paintings and drawings of artist Agostino Brunias (ca. 1730-1796) when he worked in the British West Indian colonies, particularly Dominica. Brunias’s work was often copied and the West Indian island or community depicted identified inaccurately. Image consists of four separate roundels. Moving clockwise from the top left, "Blanchisseuses," shows three women at the edge of a river. To the left, on the bank of the river, a woman dressed only in a long skirt and a head-dress carries a child on her back while balancing a tray (and some type of load) on her head. In the center of the image, a lighter-skinned woman, draped only in a cloth, stands ankle-deep in the river. It appears as if she holds a mirror in her hand. Next to her, a third woman sits on a rock in the water. "Affrainchis des Colonies" shows three free residents (two women and a man) in fashions influenced by European styles. "Négres Jouant au Baton" is an outdoor sporting scene that features two men engaged in a baton fight; a large group of male spectators is assembled around them. "Danse de Négres" shows a group of men and women dancing and clapping to the music of a drum and a tamborine., Title supplied by cataloger., Illustration in Nicolas Ponce's Receuil du vues des lieux principaux de la colonie francaise de Saint-Domingue (A Paris: Chez Moreau de Saint-Mery, en son domicile, rue Caumartin, no. 31. [Chez] Ponce, rue Saint-Hyacinthe, no. 19. [Chez] Phelipeau, rue Saint-Jacques, près celle des Mathurins, no. 45., 1795), plate number 26, n.p., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Scenes from Slave Life.
Creator
Ponce, Nicolas, 1746-1831, engraver
Date
[1795]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare **Am 1795 Ponce 6368.F no 26, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2691
