Portrait of a Woman and an Enslaved Servant 1696 Nicolas de Largillierre (or Largillière) French The notion that there were no slaves in France was readily extrapolated from the legal code promoted by the minister of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, whose portrait hangs in this gallery. But exceptions abounded, particularly for families with wealth derived from the slave trade between France and its colonies. This portrait is an explicit document of the reality of a societal structure based on theories of pseudoscientific racism formulated in government-sanctioned academies: a white woman clad
Portrait of a Woman and an Enslaved Servant 1696 Nicolas de Largillierre (or Largillière) French The notion that there were no slaves in France was readily extrapolated from the legal code promoted by the minister of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, whose portrait hangs in this gallery. But exceptions abounded, particularly for families with wealth derived from the slave trade between France and its colonies. This portrait is an explicit document of the reality of a societal structure based on theories of pseudoscientific racism formulated in government-sanctioned academies: a white woman clad in resplendent silk dominates, her scale and placement constructed to inspire reverential admiration, while a Black child wearing a hinged metal slave collar is positioned subserviently to her side. His pictorial equation with the dog, a symbol of fidelity, alludes to enslavers’ fantasy of a natural order of racialized Portrait of a Woman and an Enslaved Servant. Nicolas de Largillierre (or Largillière) (French, Paris 1656–1746 Paris). 1696. Oil on canvas. Paintings
Size: 2982px × 3877px
Photo credit: © MET/BOT / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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