Hollar's portrait of an African boy in doublet
By HOLLAR, W[enceslaus] , 1645
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[Print of an African boy in doublet]

Art & Architecture
  • Author: HOLLAR, W[enceslaus]
  • Publication place: [Antwerp]
  • Publication date: 1645.
  • Physical description: Etching.
  • Dimensions: 82 by 61mm. (3.25 by 2.5 inches).
  • Inventory reference: 18282

Notes

In 1645, after his escape from the Parliamentary forces that had captured him as part of the Royalist regiment and his return to Antwerp, Hollar published a number of portraits, the most remarkable of which show three diasporic African people. The present image shows an African boy in profile, wearing a soft white collar with a pattern of pointed rays, over a white doublet fastened in the front with six buttons. Unfortunately almost all the subjects of Hollar’s portraits remain anonymous, but this boy is wearing clothes typical of a servant in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century.

Bibliography

  1. NHG Hollar 812
  2. Pennington 2003
  3. RCIN 804318.
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