Title: War dance of emigrant Zulus
Medium: Oil on canvas
Signed and dated on 1867
Unframed: 29.5cm x 45 cm
Framed: 58cm x 73cm
In the painting, War dance of emigrant Zulus, Baines paid detailed attention to distinctive items of material culture. For example, you can see the chief wearing leopard skin as well as very particular hair styles and clothing warn by this Zulu tribe. He also annotated his paintings with descriptive ethnographic details. This is interesting considering that Anthropology was not yet formalised at the time when Baines recorded his observations in Southern Africa (Stevenson 1999:91,94).
According to Henry Hall (Stevenson 1999:24) Baines should not only be regarded as an ethnologist, but also as a botanist and natural historian and that he was equal, if not superior to his contemporaries. When looking at the above-mentioned painting Baines’ skill as a botanist is very noticeable. The wild fig tree and the palm trees from the well-watered forests of south-eastern and tropical Africa are easily recognisable.
To better understand the precisely observed details found in both Baines’ paintings and writing you must look at his work within the Victorian context. During this period artists, writers and scholars were concerned with scientific accuracy. This can be seen in the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the writings of Ruskin, and even the poetry of Hopkins (Stevenson 1999:24).
Baines were very self-conscious about the authenticity of his paintings, to the extent where he habitually included himself in his images as to affirm that he was there and that he has witnessed whatever was depicted in the image (Stevenson 1999:24).
“I am simply an artist telling them what I have seen as truthfully as I know how” – Thomas Baines (Stevenson 1999:92).
