In which there is are "Indian" paintings of "African" people, 1791-8
I've posted before about people of African descent living in India, and the following watercolours are available elsewhere on the internet, but I've only seen them posted without any biographical details of the artist.
These watercolours depicting "African" and Madagascan people were painted in British India in 1791-8 by an man named Robert Mabon who died in 1798. I know little more about Mabon except that he was a soldier in the 77th Regiment, raised by the East India Company, who offered his artistic skills to James Wales, a travelling Scottish artist, and was purchased out of the infantry in exchange.
I haven't seen these images in their original context in Mabon's notebooks and the descriptive titles are therefore those provided by the institution holding those notebooks. I suspect they might need further clarification as they don't seem to wholly fit the images to which they are attached.
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These watercolours depicting "African" and Madagascan people were painted in British India in 1791-8 by an man named Robert Mabon who died in 1798. I know little more about Mabon except that he was a soldier in the 77th Regiment, raised by the East India Company, who offered his artistic skills to James Wales, a travelling Scottish artist, and was purchased out of the infantry in exchange.
I haven't seen these images in their original context in Mabon's notebooks and the descriptive titles are therefore those provided by the institution holding those notebooks. I suspect they might need further clarification as they don't seem to wholly fit the images to which they are attached.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/549579.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.