Edouard PINGRET (Saint Quentin 1788 - 1875) - Lot 18

Edouard PINGRET (Saint Quentin 1788 - 1875) Portrait of a Black Warrior Paper mounted on cardboard 39 x 28.5 cm Bears an illegible inscription in the lower center (old restorations, accidents and missing pieces) Having lived in Mexico from 1850 to 1855, Pingret witnessed the movement of a group of Seminole Indians and their black allies from the Nacimiento Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) to Coahuila in northern Mexico. These moves took place in 1849-1850, in parallel with the Seminole Wars (1816-1858). As part of negotiations granting them rights to territories in northern Mexico, a Seminole delegation travelled to Mexico City in 1852 to meet with Mexican representatives. This event may well have left its mark on Pingret. The Seminole Indians had special ties with the black population living on their territory. Black slaves who had fled the exploitations were able to integrate the Seminole tribes, adopting their customs and dress. We would like to thank Kevin Mulroy, Ph.D., University Librarian at the University of California, Los Angeles, author of the books on the Seminole Indians Freedom on the Border (1993) and The Seminole Freedmen (2007), for providing us with the information contained in the notice. He points out that although the Seminole Indians had black slaves in Florida, Indian Territory and Mexico, he doesn't think the painting represents any of them. It appears to be an image of an African, and there is nothing to link it to the blacks associated with the Seminoles or Mexico.