Tableau of the Principal Peoples of America (Tableau des principaux peuples de l'Amérique)

George Malbeste|Félix Mixelle Jeune|Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur

1798 · Etching and aquatint with hand coloring · The American Wing

This print tableau was made to illustrate a text by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur that describes the mores, customs, religion, and commerce of the peoples of the Americas. A series of twenty-four vignettes purports to represent the physical appearance and characteristic dress of indigenous types from Canada to Patagonia. A lively border inhabited by animals native to the Americas alludes to the famed natural abundance of the New World. Grasset’s compilation, which he claims is "exact and true," is in fact based on earlier prints and travel accounts. Moreover, he closely follows the negative assessment of the peoples of the Americas advanced by some European naturalists, who held that the climate had resulted in the physical and moral degeneracy of the human species.

Artist

George Malbeste|Félix Mixelle Jeune|Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur

Date

1798

Medium

Etching and aquatint with hand coloring

Culture

French

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Judith F. Hernstadt, 2017