Joanna de Silva

By Fransecso Renaldi
1792, India, oil on canvas

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. Read more about Joanna in this publication by the Met.

Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (upper right): Joanna de Silva, a native / of Bengal, the faithful / and affectionate Nurse / of the Children of / Lieutenant Colonel Charles Deare / Painted by Will:m Wood 1792

Fine art, museum quality reproduction print on archival media, offering high quality and lasting durability. Ships unframed.

Artwork via The Met Museum