No. 58 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)

A drawing of a West African woman's head, presumably from one of Bray's 'Pallas' voyages of 1775-76. Bray clearly had an artistic interest in elaborate hairstyles, both European and African. This drawing is fairly clearly a pair with PAJ2032, and may be of the same woman despite slight differences. It is certainly of the same pattern of hairstyle, but this time with the local hat or head-dress over it. With PAJ2011 and PAJ2039 they are two of four single monochrome studies of African heads by Bray in the related group, which also includes three more stylized pairs on single sheets in greater colour (PAJ2028, PJ2029 and PAJ2040).

All are among 73 drawings by him (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest.