Theodor de Bry Engraving: Native American Wedding Ceremony

Title: "Native American Wedding"

Artist: Theodor de Bry
Year: 1528-1598
Medium: engraving
Size: 6-1/8" x 8-1/2"
ID: 122022-18

Description: 

Late 16th-century engraving by Theodor de Bry, after a watercolor by Jacques le Moyne, titled "The King Receives the Queen." The engraving shows a man and woman, most likely the chief and his bride, seated on a wooden platform. Women dance in a circle and men look on. Although de Bry never set foot in the New World himself, he made many copies of watercolors by the French artist le Moyne depicting the Timucua tribe of Florida. They are some of the earliest, if not necessarily the most accurate, surviving records of the Native Americans of the period.

Condition: Small chip to the bottom left margin. Unsigned. Plate 38.

About the Artist:

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was a prominent Flemish engraver and publisher best known for his engravings of the New World. Born in Liege, de Bry hailed from the portion of Flanders then controlled by Spain. The de Brys were a family of jewelers and engravers, and young Theodor was trained in those artisanal trades. In 1590, de Bry began to publish his Les Grands Voyages, which would eventually stretch to thirty volumes released by de Bry and his two sons. The volumes contained not only important engraved images of the New World, the first many had seen of the geographic novelties, but also several important maps. He also published a collection focused on India Orientalis. Les Grands Voyages was published in German, Latin, French, and English, extending de Bry’s fame and his view of the New World.