Something about Pierre Mignard's painting of Louise de Keroualle featuring the negro girl has never sat well with me.
To put it blankly, it seems that the painter didn't care much about expressing her femininity,with her hair so short, uncoiffed and not wearing earrings (for us Africans, girls must wear earrings). Well the mystery seems to have been solved. It is really about the pearls and coral she profers to Louise de Keroualle.
I came across this interesting painting some time ago, years actually, and I have always wanted to make a blog post about it.
It is the theme of black people appearing in paintings of as heraldic symbols, or as reflecting the true nature or history of the subjects, their ancestors and even their benefactors.
It is a painting of young Joseph II (I think) of Austria, with a page girl in a blue robe. It could be Joseph 1 though. A young future emperor with a page girl? Didn't he have a page boy?
What did he get up to with his page girl? Exercise his imperial prerogatives?