La Negresse, from "Les Bars"
Artist
Louis Legrand
(French, 1863–1951)
Date1908
Mediumdrypoint on white laid paper
Dimensionsplate: 20.9 x 14.4 cm
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1972.56
Label TextFueled in part by Gauguin and Picasso’s stereotypes of native Tahitians and Africans, turn-of-the-century representations of Afro-French women often deal with complex intersections of the foreign and the familiar. In this print, the woman’s race is obscured by cloaking her in the same attire as the white prostitute behind her. Simultaneously, race is exaggerated through the overworked markmaking on her face. Represented as same and other, familiar and exotic, Legrand links social ambivalence about the status of French Black women with that of sexual impropriety.On View
Not on view
