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'The Head Dress of the Wappo Negro's, Ivory Coast, Africa' [Bray album]

© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London | CC BY-NC-ND

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Date

probably 1775

Artist

Gabriel Bray (1746-1823)

Collective Title

From an album of drawings by Gabriel Bray.

Collection

Royal Museums Greenwich

Image Link

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-200963

Description

No. 54 of 74. Presumably from the 'Pallas' voyage of 1774-75. This is one of three such drawings of pairs of African heads in this Bray group which suggest he may have seen the engravings of Maori heads by Sydney Parkinson, from Cook's first voyage, published in 1773. Unlike those, however, Bray's stop at the base of the necks with a stylized sculptural edge. The group also includes a number of single African heads in monochrome. All are among 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

© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Location

Côte d'Ivoire

Country

Medium

Tags

Portraits

Category

People & Society

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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform