No. 64 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)

A left-profile study of a female African head, with elaborately braided hair, presumably made on one of Bray's two voyages to West Africa. With PAJ2011 and an evident pair (PAJ2032 and PAJ2033) it is one 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 Bray (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.