Portrait of Tetaku’s second wife, with the upper body depicted from the front. The figure is portrayed with the ornaments used by Nootka women, such as bracelets, shell and whalebone necklaces, earrings, etc. The drawing was done during the Malaspina expedition that took place between 1789 and 1794. Commander Alessandro Malaspina was the leader of the expedition organised by the Spanish Crown to travel over its American territory, according to a plan presented by the commander himself. The material they collected is scattered across different institutions in Spain, England, Argentina and Chile. The portrait is attributed to the sailor José Cardero, who during the expedition was also a draftsman. In the Juan de Fuca Strait and Nootka Sound, he drew various landscapes and portraits of Native Americans, some of them engraved in Madrid by Fernando Selmá to illustrate the “Atlas of the voyage of the schooners Sutil and Mexicana”.
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