Description
No. 53 of 74. Titled as above, on the drawing, and dated and signed on a close-trimmed tag of the backing sheet 'March 75 GB'. 'Europeans in the pre-industrial age used gum arabic [a tree resin] as a stiffener in making paint, paper, glue and ink, in preparing foodstuffs and cosmetics and in sizing cloth..and by the 18th century the Mauritanian Sahara had become virtually the sole supplier of gum arabic to Europe' (J. L. A. Webb jr., 'The Trade in Gum Arabic:..' in 'Journal of African History', vol. 26 (1985) p.149). This was exported from the coast of southern Mauritania - which became known as the 'gum coast', and from the Senegal River - Mauritania and Senegal, immediately to the south, being the neighbouring and most westerly coastal states of Africa. Bray presumably saw these men (though 'Jolliffe' is an approximation of a local group name not immediately discoverable) when the 'Pallas' called at Senegal on her way down the African coast in March 1775. 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 (PAJ2011, PAJ2039 and an evident pair, PAJ2032 ane PAJ2033). 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
Mauritania
Country
Mauritania
Medium
Watercolour
Tags
Category
People & Society
