Vicente Albán
Noble Woman with Her Black Slave (Señora principal con su negra esclava)circa 1783

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Spanish America at the Center of the World

Oil painting of two full-length women standing outdoors surrounded by tropical fruit trees, with a large basket of fruit on a plinth to the left and a Spanish text cartouche at lower left

Oil painting still life of red and brown tropical fruits piled in a wicker basket, several cut open to reveal pale interiors, with letter labels A–D marking botanical details; trees and cloudy sky in the background.

Oil painting of two full-length figures standing outdoors before a blue sky with tropical trees. At right, a light-skinned woman wears an elaborate layered skirt in red, white, and gold with lace trim, pearl accessories, and a flower-adorned hat held at her side. At left, a darker-skinned figure in simpler dress holds a tray. Letters A and B appear in the background.

Artist or Maker: Vicente Albán
Ecuador, active 1769-1796
Title: Noble Woman with Her Black Slave (Señora principal con su negra esclava)
Date Made: circa 1783
Medium: Oil on canvas; from a set of 6
Dimensions: Unframed: 32 × 41 3/4 in. (81.3 × 106 cm); framed: 36 1/4 × 47 × 1 3/4 in. (92.08 × 119.38 × 4.45 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2014.89.1
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This painting and its companion (M.2014.89.2) present richly dressed figures next to giant tropical fruits to symbolize the abundance of the land. Such images participated in a long tradition in Europe of representing native inhabitants alongside uncannily oversized fruits and local fauna, including in European books of natural history. The Spanish woman is portrayed in stark white—a tonal exaggeration meant to distinguish her from her enslaved companion—wearing a luxurious regional ensemble, including a petticoat (pollera) with gold decorations, finely embroidered silk stockings, pearls (associated with the riches of the Americas), and a crucifix and oval reliquary (to signal that she is Catholic and hence “civilized”). The enslaved woman is more modestly bedecked and portrayed barefoot to emphasize her lower social status.

Scientific analysis has shown that the black flowers on the noblewoman’s skirt and the hat she holds in her left hand were originally painted in silver—a detail that would have bolstered the image of the colony as a land of unsurpassable riches. Though time has irreversibly tarnished these features, it is easy to imagine the erstwhile impact of the painting glittering with abundant touches of gold and silver.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Addison Mizner, Palm Beach, Florida, c. 1920; William Gray Warden (Warden House), West Palm Beach, Florida, 1922; Benjamin and Gertrude Shapiro, Palm Beach, Florida, 1945; by inheritance to their granddaughter Sheryl Greenberg, 1969–70; Sotheby’s, New York, May 28–29, 2014, lot 60; LACMA, 2014.
Selected Bibliography: Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
Ilona Katzew, “Now on View: LACMA’s New Vicente Albán Paintings from Ecuador,” Unframed, January 28, 2015, https://unframed.lacma.org/2015/01/28/now-view-lacmas-new-vicente-albán-paintings-ecuador.
Joseph Franek, Ilona Katzew, “Restoring LACMA’s New Vincente Albán Paintings from Ecuador,” Unframed, February 4, 2015, https://unframed.lacma.org/2015/02/04/restoring-new-vicente-alban.
Selected Exhibition History: Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Related Unframed

Vicente Albán
Noble Woman with Her Black Slave (Señora principal con su negra esclava)circa 1783

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Spanish America at the Center of the World

Artist or Maker: Vicente Albán
Ecuador, active 1769-1796
Title: Noble Woman with Her Black Slave (Señora principal con su negra esclava)
Date Made: circa 1783
Medium: Oil on canvas; from a set of 6
Dimensions: Unframed: 32 × 41 3/4 in. (81.3 × 106 cm); framed: 36 1/4 × 47 × 1 3/4 in. (92.08 × 119.38 × 4.45 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2014.89.1
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This painting and its companion (M.2014.89.2) present richly dressed figures next to giant tropical fruits to symbolize the abundance of the land. Such images participated in a long tradition in Europe of representing native inhabitants alongside uncannily oversized fruits and local fauna, including in European books of natural history. The Spanish woman is portrayed in stark white—a tonal exaggeration meant to distinguish her from her enslaved companion—wearing a luxurious regional ensemble, including a petticoat (pollera) with gold decorations, finely embroidered silk stockings, pearls (associated with the riches of the Americas), and a crucifix and oval reliquary (to signal that she is Catholic and hence “civilized”). The enslaved woman is more modestly bedecked and portrayed barefoot to emphasize her lower social status.

Scientific analysis has shown that the black flowers on the noblewoman’s skirt and the hat she holds in her left hand were originally painted in silver—a detail that would have bolstered the image of the colony as a land of unsurpassable riches. Though time has irreversibly tarnished these features, it is easy to imagine the erstwhile impact of the painting glittering with abundant touches of gold and silver.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Addison Mizner, Palm Beach, Florida, c. 1920; William Gray Warden (Warden House), West Palm Beach, Florida, 1922; Benjamin and Gertrude Shapiro, Palm Beach, Florida, 1945; by inheritance to their granddaughter Sheryl Greenberg, 1969–70; Sotheby’s, New York, May 28–29, 2014, lot 60; LACMA, 2014.
Selected Bibliography: Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
Ilona Katzew, “Now on View: LACMA’s New Vicente Albán Paintings from Ecuador,” Unframed, January 28, 2015, https://unframed.lacma.org/2015/01/28/now-view-lacmas-new-vicente-albán-paintings-ecuador.
Joseph Franek, Ilona Katzew, “Restoring LACMA’s New Vincente Albán Paintings from Ecuador,” Unframed, February 4, 2015, https://unframed.lacma.org/2015/02/04/restoring-new-vicente-alban.
Selected Exhibition History: Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Related Unframed

This Week at LACMA

June 3, 2022
Editors