Portrait & the Colonial Imaginary

＂It was very difficult to find a way of writing about the different perspectives of France and Africa, of Africans in France and the French in Africa.＂, Simon Dell

Unique study of portraiture in the colonial imaginaryFrench colonisers of the Third Republic claimed not to oppress but to liberate, imagining they were spreading republican ideals to the colonies to make a Greater France. In this book Simon Dell explores the various roles played by portraiture in this colonial imaginary.

Anyone interested in the history of colonial Africa will have encountered innumerable portraits of African elites produced during the first half of the twentieth century, yet no book to date has focused on these ubiquitous images. Dell analyses the production and dissemination of such portraits and situates them in a complex and conflicted field of representations.

Moving between European and African perspectives, The Portrait and the Colonial Imaginary blends history with art history to provide insights into the larger processes that were transforming the French metropole and colonies during the early twentieth century.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Simon Dell teaches in the Department of Art History and World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia.