Music and Dance in Beaufort County

This rare and important watercolor was acquired for Abby Aldrich Rockefeller's collection by Holger Cahill during an eighteen-month buying trip through the South. Until recently, the identity of the artist was unknown. New research strongly suggests that John Rose, a Beaufort County, South Carolina, planter, civic leader, and amateur artist, rendered this sensitive portrayal of the enslaved men and women on his plantation. Although it has been previously interpreted as a jumping-the-broom ceremony, the figures are participating in a West African stick dance to the accompaniment of African musical instruments, supporting the idea that at least some African traditions survived the Atlantic crossing.

Rose’s painting is highly detailed in the rendering of objects and even more particularly in the execution of faces, which are individualized and which undoubtedly represent persons he knew. Though small, the picture has a highly complex composition with figures in two basic groups, one at right and one at left, with a building behind each. The two women at left each shake a shegureh, a rattle of African origin. The drum and the stringed instrument also had origins in Africa.
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