Hey! Just before I ask, this is a totally amazing blog. Kudos to you for making it. So, I was wondering if you have any painting(s)/picture(s) references towards the following ethnicities and their clothing: (this is set during the 1800s ). A Prussian General, a Victorian Gentleman, a Victorian painter woman, a Greek male scholar, a Portuguese prince, and a Dutch prince. ( I was planning to make a story about these, and i need references, so that i could draw them. ) Help a friend out?
First things first, none of the categories you’ve defined here are “ethnicities”. They’re all jobs and nationalities, or jobs and time period, depending on what you mean by “Victorian.” I’m assuming that, since you’re asking me, you want to see people of color wearing these outfits before you draw them? That’s not really necessary. You can really just search for fashion references, then make the person in the outfit a person of color.
I’m guessing you’re making a comic or illustrated story, since you mention wanting visual references for drawing-there’s nothing stopping you from making a bazillion drawings of people of color wearing whatever historical costume you fancy them wearing. Sadly, some people seem to find it brain-breaking to envision a person who isn’t white wearing a dang cravat, so this blog is full of images of actual people (even religious and mythological subjects used models), so have at it if you need inspiration.
If you want to just browse around, you should check out the “1800s Week” tag here; that’s more if you just want general visual fashion references like this:
But to go bit by bit specifically, I’ll do what I can for ya.
This one’s not hard at all, you’ll find thousands of resources from a google image search, or you can check out what the Deutsches Historiches Museum has available.
Here’s Gustav Sabac El Cher, an Afro-Prussian military musician:
You might find Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250-1914, ed. Mischa Honeck, Martin Klimke, and Anne Kuhlmann useful for your research here.
For European generals of color in general (ha…), you might wanna check out Ivan Abramovich Gannibal (1735-1801):
And Abram Petrovich Gannibal, his father, and incidentally the great grandfather of Alexandre Pushkin, whose unfinished novel Peter the Great’s Moor, is about his life as a military commander:
And of course, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie:
This is also not very difficult. If you want specific names or regions to explore, and we take “Victorian” to mean “British”, here’s an interactive map of Black Londoners 1800-1900 you can check out, all people who actually lived and worked there. There’s Black Victorians/Black Victoriana by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina; There’s also John Archer, the mayor of Battersea South London.
You also don’t get more “Victorian” than Queen Victoria’s actual secretary, Abdul Karim (called “the Munshi”):
And then there’s always the unparalleled hotness that is a young Alexandre Dumas (yes, THE Alexandre Dumas!!):
3. Victorian Painter Woman
Well, here’s Edmonia Lewis, an artist living & working in Europe during the time specified:
A woman of Ojibwe, Haitian, and African-American heritage, she was accused of poisoning her female classmates with an aphrodisiac because she was gay, then a LOT of bad stuff happened, then some good stuff, then some WEIRD stuff, and somehow she ended up rich, single, and working in Rome until her death, sometime around 1911.
I wanna say there was evidence that this woman painted by Eugene Delacroix was a working artist in Paris as well:
For more on art and artists, check out What Jane Saw, which is a recreation of an actual art exhibit Jane Austen attended in 1813, it’s pretty great.
Okay, for this one you’ve GOT to check out Christos the Athenian:
He was multilingual, an independent thinker, and had good knowledge of politics and diplomacy. He was a distinguished and much loved member of Athenean society, a favourite subject of many contemporary painters, sculptors, and poets. When the painter Gyzis came to Athens, Christos was a living legend and he painted him on many occasions between 1871-1875 other than the portrait:Head of an ArabOriental man with a musical instrumentOriental man smokingOriental man with fruitThe punishment of the chicken thief (first man on the right)
You don’t really have to guess with this one; here’s Michael of Braganza (1802-1866), as Infante of Portugal in exile in Vienna:
Welp for that you’re gonna want either William II or III of the Netherlands and they basically all just look like this more or less:
As you can see, once you get to princes there’s not “a Prince” it’s literally just “the prince at this time of this nation was this guy” type of thing. At least when it comes to Crown Princes and such, but you can go ahead and check out the families and the youngest sons and daughters and royal nephews or whatever and see who they were. It just depends on if you’re like, writing historical fiction and want to keep your facts straight or if you’re doing some kinda alternate-history or fantasy type deal in which case you can quite literally do whatever you want.
