Linen Market, Dominica, Agostino Brunias (c. 1780)

Dr. Tessa Murphy retouches European renderings of colonial Caribbean commerce in the 18th century, through Agostino Brunias' oil painting, Linen Market, Dominica. Painted around 1780, Linen Market, Dominica depicts a Caribbean port town teeming with commerce. Great ships and local Kalinago canoes straddle the coastline, as people of all races and classes and barter for carrots, calabashes, and callaloo, the new global goods of imperial exchange. Italian artist Agostino Brunias' bustling waterfront conveys the convergence of cultures in Britain's so-called Ceded Islands, acquired from France following its success in the Seven Years War. Brunias' image of abundance depicts the extraordinary and everyday exchanges of empire for Western consumption. glossing over the realities of slavery, social hierarchy, and interconnected Caribbean colonies. The artist's paintings and own biography still hint at the island's intertwined indigenous and imperial, colonial and Creole histories. PRESENTER: Dr. Tessa Murphy, Assistant Professor of History at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Her latest book is The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean. ART: Linen Market, Dominica, Agostino Brunias (c. 1780). IMAGE: 'Linen Market, Dominica'. SOUNDS: Toybox. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES at: twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936 Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines