Art in Context | Materials in Miniature: William Hay’s “Seamstresses, St. Kitts, Caribbean” and Global Material Culture
Emma Pearce, PhD in history of art at the University of Edinburgh, will discuss William Hay’s delicate watercolor Seamstresses, St. Kitts, Caribbean (1798), an intimate portrayal of two women in an act of making.
About this program
William Hay’s delicate watercolor Seamstresses, St. Kitts, Caribbean (1798) is an intimate portrayal of two women in an act of making. The painting presents miniature representations of a host of different textiles and accessories—including muslin and chintz cloth, madras handkerchiefs, coral necklaces, and gold earrings—that provide insight into the consumption and fashioning of global goods. This talk delves into the significance of these various objects and examines what they can tell us about the sartorial self-fashioning and creative material interactions of women of color in the late eighteenth-century Caribbean.
About Emma Pearce
Emma Pearce recently completed her PhD in history of art at the University of Edinburgh, where her thesis focused on the colonial connections and legacies of tartan during the long eighteenth century. For the past academic year, she has held a lecturing position at Glasgow School of Art in the design history and theory department. Her research specialties are painting, print culture, and fashion and textile history, and she is broadly interested in topics surrounding identity, colonialism, and the body. Her current research focuses on the relationships between masculinity, empire, and material culture made from animal matter. During her residential fellowship at YCBA, she is working on an article contextualizing William Hay’s Seamstresses within art histories of Caribbean watercolor painting of the late eighteenth century.
Register
Preregistration is required for this program. Please contact ycba.studyroom@yale.edu to register.
Art in Context
Presented by faculty, staff, student guides, and visiting scholars, these gallery talks focus on a particular work of art in the museum’s collections or special exhibitions through an in-depth look at its style, subject matter, technique, or time period.
Top image
William Hay, Seamstresses, St. Kitts, Caribbean, 1798, watercolor over graphite on paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
