| Lady Estcourt (1809?-1886), wife of a British Army officer, described her subject as the"good woman of colour" and called her"a great friend." The woman and her husband had taken in and nursed a sick black man who could not pay his lodging. The Estcourt's lived in Lundy's Lane near Niagara Falls where a number of blacks had settled. Most came as refugees from slavery in the United States after 1793 when slavery was limited in Upper Canada (Ontario). This portrait is a rare early picture of an African-Canadian. The head is painted with great sensitivity in the style of a miniature. Watercolour and pencil
C-093963 |