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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2023.181
People
Agostino Brunias, Italian (Rome, Italy 1730 - 1796 Roseau, Dominica)
Title
Indigenous Kalinago of St. Vincent [Aboriginal Caraibs of St. Vincents]
Other Titles
Former Title: Aboriginal Caribs of St. Vincents
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1765-1790
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/377133

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
29.5 × 22.8 cm (11 5/8 × 9 in.)
framed: 35.3 × 28.5 cm (13 7/8 × 11 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • label: verso of frame, lower right, yellow sticker with black printed text: 184189 / 1
  • label: verso of frame, top right, round white sticker: [handwritten, blue ink:] 2-14-22 [printed:] PHOTO / DONE
  • inscription: verso of frame, top, graphite: No 3
  • inscription: verso, top strainer: [graphite, later hand?:] Native [black ink:] Aboriginal Caraibs of / St. Vincents.
  • inscription: verso, top strainer, graphite: No 3
  • label: verso, bottom strainer, handwritten [or printed?], black ink: [torn, probably "Native"] Aboriginal Caraibs of St. Vincent [torn] / Brunias pinxit.
  • label: verso, center of canvas, handwritten, black ink: Painted by Brunias, / an eminent French Artist. / Presented by John Gardner, Esq., of Pownalboro', / in 1790. / This is one of six Paintings by Brunias, / representing the People of different color in some of / the Islands in the West Indies.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
John Gardiner (or Gardner) (1737-1793), Pownalborough, Maine, by 1790, gift; to Harvard College Library, 1790, deposited; at Peabody Museum, 1890, transferred (1); to Harvard Art Museums, 2023

(1) This painting was missing from the Peabody Museum by 1975 and returned to the museum in 2021.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (transfer from Harvard College Library), gift of John Gardiner, 1790
Accession Year
2023
Object Number
2023.181
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Harvard Corporation, Meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard College (Harvard University Archives, November 15, 1790)., p. 303 [https://nrs.lib.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.arch:10884876?n=359 (accessed February 23, 2023)]
  • Ethan Lasser, ed., The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), p. 27 in Ethan W. Lasser's "Harvard's Teaching Cabinet"
  • Mia L. Bagneris, Colouring the Caribbean: Race and the art of Agostino Brunias, Manchester University Press (Manchester, UK, 2018), pp. 14, 175 note 1

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu