Getty Museum
An Ethiopian Chief (84.XM.170.2)
Creator
F. Holland DayAmerican Photographer · 1864–1933
All works by this person →Fred Holland Day was a wealthy eccentric and philanthropist from Massachusetts. As partner in the publishing firm Copeland and Day, which he founded in 1884, Day indulged his passion for English literature, publishing exquisite small-edition, hand-bound volumes by the likes of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Day's friend Oscar Wilde. Although Copeland and Day published ninety-eight books and periodical
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1897
- Medium
- Photogravure
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
In the late 1890s Fred Holland Day, created a group of “African” photographs featuring the Black artist and model J. Alexandre Skeete (1874-1945), who dressed in costumes, wore elaborate accessories, and held props that evoked Day’s image of African royalty. In this picture, Skeete poses as an Ethiopian chief partially clothed in a draped robe and feather headdress. He holds a spear; a metal orb is located near his right hip. By applying titles such as *Ethiopian Chief, Nubia, and Menelik* to these photographs, Day referenced both an Africa of his day and of the ancient past. J. Alexandre Skeete was born January 16, 1874, in British Guiana and immigrated to the United States in 1888 to pursue career in art. He attended Cowles Art School in Boston and graduated with honors. He worked as an illustrator for the Boston Herald and as an art editor and illustrator for the *Colored American Magazine*. It is not known when Skeete met Day, but he posed for at least ten of Day’s photographs between 1897 and 1899. Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs, 2021.
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