Existing comment:
Pocahontas by an unknown artist after a print (shown on the adjoining wall) by Simon van de Passe. Probably in the 1700s, an English artist made an oil painting that is loosely copied after the print drawn in Pocahontas's lifetime. However, the artist was insensitive to the subject's Indian features. Her dark skin and black hair were Europeanized to be white and brown respectively. Even her white beaver hat was mistakenly changed to black. The original eighteenth-century painting is called the Booton Hall portrait. This, in turn, is a 1929 copy of that picture. Mary Ellen Howe's painting on the adjoining wall shows how this picture would look if the artist had been faithful to details in the print. |