Pitcher
about 1840
Object PlaceMedford, Massachusetts
Medium/TechniqueEarthenware with dark brown Albany slip glaze
DimensionsOverall: 25.7 x 25.4 x 66 cm (10 1/8 x 10 x 26 in.)
Credit LineHeritage Fund for a Diverse Collection, Gallery Instructor 50th Anniversary Fund to support The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection, John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, and partial gift of Susan and James Witkowski
Accession number2016.532
On View
Not on viewClassificationsCeramics
Collections
Made at an unknown pottery in Medford, Massachusetts, around 1840, this pitcher is still being studied and provokes challenging conversations. It has been thought to be a posthumous depiction of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the former slave who led the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), the first successful war for independence by enslaved people in the Americas. Although L’Ouverture never sat for a portrait in his own lifetime, widely circulated prints mythologized him alternatively as a powerful hero and a ruthless war lord. The vessel’s exaggerated facial features derive from stereotypical images of black people in early 19th-century popular culture.
ProvenanceBy 2000, collection of Tony and Marie Shank, Marion, South Carolina; December 2000, sold by the Shanks to James P. and Susan C. Witkowski, Camden, South Carolina; November 2016, sold by the Witkowskis to the MFA. (Accession date: November 9, 2016)
A.D. 500–1550
10th century
10th–early 11th century
300 B.C.–A.D. 300
A.D. 650–800
650–750 AD
A.D. 600–700
A.D. 100–300