Lot 112 Dα

One of the earliest published portraits of an African was created in 1760 by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, who modelled the slave Paul Zaigre in terracotta. The latter came to Orléans from Santo Domingo in 1751 to the household of Aignan-Thomas Desfriches, who owned a sugar plantation on the Caribbean island. Zaigre was originally from Angola. When Desfriches became ill, he took care of him and stayed with him for the rest of his life. Desfriches appointed him his right hand man and gave him a house. The terracotta sculpture of the African in a turban decorated with feathers is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts Orléans. The small sculpture presented here is probably to be dated earlier. It shows a man whose arduous life is clearly expressed in his facial features. He has none of the self-assurance and European elegance of Paul Zaigre, who lived a privileged life despite his slave status.