Villagers Merry Making in the island of St. Vincent, with Dancers and Musicians, A Landscape with Huts on a Hill
This oil painting shows the houses of enslaved people on the left and in the background. Agostino Brunias (1730–1796), also Brunyas, Brunais, was an Italian painter. He went to London in 1758 where he became acquainted with William Young, who was appointed to a high governmental post in West Indian territories acquired by Britain from France during the Seven Year’s War. In late 1764, Brunias accompanied Young to the Caribbean as his personal artist. Arriving in early 1765, Brunias stayed in the islands until around 1775, when he returned to England and exhibited some of his paintings. He returned to the West Indies in 1784 and remained there until his death on the island of Dominica in 1796. Although Brunias primarily resided in Dominica, he also spent time in St. Vincent and visited other islands, including Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts and Tobago. See Lennox Honychurch, “Chatoyer's Artist: Agostino Brunias and the Depiction of St Vincent,” Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 50 (2004): p.104-128; Hans Huth, “Agostino Brunias, Romano,” The Connoisseur 51 (1962): p. 265-269. See images NW0251a and NW0156.
Image Title
Villagers Merry Making in the island of St. Vincent, with Dancers and Musicians, A Landscape with Huts on a Hill
RegID
SI-OB-975
Date
1775
Title
Villagers Merry Making in the island of St. Vincent, with Dancers and Musicians, A Landscape with Huts on a Hill
Source
National Library of Jamaica, Institute of Jamaica, Kingston.
Language
English
Item sets
Music, Dance & Recreational Activities
Spatial Coverage
Caribbean--St. Vincent
Reproduced In
For a version of this painting with some similar figures see "Scene with Dancing in the West Indies, ca. 1770-80" in Ladislas Bugner and Hugh Honour, The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol. 4 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), p.33.
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Kenneth Bilby; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
30-May-16; 6-Sep-19
Identifier
Brunias003