This oil painting shows several women washing clothes in a river, while a small child is playing by a riverside. The location is not given, but it is probably Dominica or St. Vincent. 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 image NW0150-a.

National Library of Jamaica, Institute of Jamaica, Kingston.

English

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Brunias004

Caribbean--St. Vincent

Caribbean--Dominica

"The West-India Washer Women", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed March 20, 2023, http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/2433