Currently not on view
Portrait of a Negro Boy,
ca. 1807
possibly Charles Zechel
y1969-10
More Context
Special Exhibition
This pair of compelling portraits is based on seventeenthcentury Dutch prints of a young woman and young man of African origin. Recreated here in the traditional folk-art technique of reverse glass painting, this young pair turn their bodies toward each other as their faces gaze outward, a traditional arrangement for paintings of newly engaged or married couples. The identities of these figures are unknown, but their dress is characteristic of seventeenth-century America.
Information
Title
Portrait of a Negro Boy
Dates
ca. 1807
Maker
possibly Charles Zechel
Medium
Oil on glass
Dimensions
9.1 x 7.6 cm (3 9/16 x 3 in.)
frame: 31.3 x 41.5 x 3.2 cm (12 5/16 x 16 5/16 x 1 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Gerald Wilkinson
Object Number
y1969-10
Inscription
Verso, on gray backing paper: Carolus Zechel/Anno 1807
Culture
Type
Subject
- "Acquisitions 1969", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 29, no. 1 (1970): p. 16-27., p. 27
- Guy C. McElroy, et al., Facing History: the Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940, (San Francisco, CA: Bedford Arts Publishers, 1990). , p. 12-13
- Tonya Bolden, Tell all the children our story: memories and mementos of being young and Black in America, (New York: Abrams, 2001)., p. 14 (illus.)
- Peter H. Wood, Strange new land: African-Americans, 1526-1776, (Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). , Cover illustration.
