Artist: Charlotte Martner · 1809Lieutenant-Colonel William Cleeve (1780-1831)
Born in Paris, Charlotte Martner relocated to the Caribbean in 1803, where she was based in Martinique with her husband. Martner’s miniatures are the direct product of the labour of enslaved people, since those within her household ground the pigments used in her paintings.
Who is the Sitter?
Lieutenant-Colonel William Cleeve led the capture of six islands in the French West Indies, for which he was decorated. Such a portrait would have been commissioned to show the sitter’s likeness, for him to send back to England. But a record from a descendent, Ruby E. Cleeve, noted that the miniature was rejected by his family because he had ‘lost his good looks due to a bout of smallpox’. Martinique was restored to the French crown in 1814 following the Treaty of Paris.
Relationship to Power
Martner returned to France in 1821. Her paintbox is still intact today, and its contents have been examined recently by Damiet Schneeweisz (V&A) [see: https://www.journal18.org/meta/laboring-likeness-charlotte-daniel-martners-paint-box-in-martinique-1803-1821-by-damiet-schneeweisz/]. She seems to have forged relationships with those in proximity to her, including enslaved Black figures, and her paintbox is a symbol of power in both the commodification of the artist’s environment, and of her own artistry in the production of portrait miniatures in a Caribbean colony.