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Profile of a middle-aged man with a pigtail [Bray album]

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Date

ca.1774

Description

No. 28 of 74. The tightly bound 'queue' suggests this may be an older seaman or ex-seaman. If sketched ashore in mid-1774 it might be Bray's father, John, a naval lieutenant who died in 1795, though this is no more than speculation. It is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest.

Image Licence

CC BY-NC-ND

Image Credit

Location

Atlantic Ocean

Medium

Watercolour