Atelier d'un cordonnier

"Workshop of a Shoemaker" (caption translation). This engraving shows several people in front of a thatched-roof house and a shed. Benoit described how "a shoemaker is measuring a free black man for a pair of shoes; the man on the left, a slave is making shoes. . . only free people of color have the right to wear shoes. . . [and in the center] an elderly woman spins cotton using a spindle" (p. 21). Pierre Jacques Benoit (1782-1854) was a Belgian artist, who visited the Dutch colony of Suriname on his own initiative for several months in 1831. He stayed in Paramaribo, but visited plantations, maroon communities and indigenous villages inland.

Image Title

Atelier d'un cordonnier

RegID

SI-OB-942

Date

1831

Title

Atelier d'un cordonnier

Source

"Figure 33" in Pierre Jacques Benoit, Voyage à Surinam; description des possessions néerlandaises dans la Guyane (Bruxelles: Société des Beaux-Arts de Wasme et Laurent, 1839).

Language

French

Item sets

Miscellaneous Occupations & Economic Activities

Spatial Coverage

South America--Suriname--Paramaribo

Researchers

Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May

Last Updated

3-May-12; 3-Sep-19

Identifier

BEN16b