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Joanna de Silva

William Wood British
1792
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 628
Painted at a time of rapidly expanding British colonialism, this is an exceptionally rare independent likeness of an identifiable Indian woman by an eighteenth-century English artist. As identified by her portrait’s inscription, Joanna de Silva was a native of Bengal, in eastern India, and was employed as a nursemaid in the family of an officer with the British East India Company. She later accompanied an orphaned daughter of the family to England, where she sat for this portrait. The sitter wears the delicate Indian textiles that were sought after around the globe in the 1700s.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Joanna de Silva
  • Artist: William Wood (British, 1769–1810)
  • Date: 1792
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 30 × 25 in. (76.2 × 63.5 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Bequest of Mary Jane Dastich, in memory of her husband, General Frank Dastich, by exchange and Charles B. Curtis Fund, 2020
  • Object Number: 2020.234
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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