Images of History: White’s Man and Woman Eating
A man and a woman sit on the ground by the side of a mat. They eat stewed corn with their hands. This tableau was one of several watercolor paintings composed by the artist and explorer John White, who sailed with Richard Grenville and others to coastal North Carolina in 1585. Commissioned to portray the landscape, flora, fauna, and customs of the Algonquin-speaking peoples of the region, White depicted ceremonies, villages, food culture, and communal arrangements. Warriors, elders, chiefs, mothers, and children strike various poses to provide visual evidence of England’s earliest encounters with the native peoples of North America. Upon his return to England in 1587, White mounted and presented these paintings, along with several others depicting the West Indies, to an unknown patron at court. Unusual for their composition in watercolors rather than oil-based paints, White’s drawings became a sensation in Western Europe, catching the eye of the Flemish engraver Theodore de Bry. De Bry’s engravings of these drawings made their way into print through Thomas Hariot’s companion volume, A Brief and True Report of the Newfound Land of Virginia, printed in 1588. Hariot’s caption to White’s depiction of the man and woman eating corn described the couple as “sober in their eating and drinking.” They lived “long” lives and did not “oppress nature.” The flattering portrayal probably stemmed from the fact that White and Hariot were active participants in English overseas exploration and colonization. Both men took an active role in the famous ‘lost colony’ of Roanoke Island (1585-1590). White’s drawings were commissioned in part to promote the land and its people as salutary, bountiful, welcoming, and docile. The promotional character of this and other examples of early modern European encounter literature encouraged archetypical depictions of the Americas as paradisiacal lands inhabited by noble savages. A guest post by Dr. James Allegro, Norfolk State University.