Gordine, an Estonian sculptor, made this work while studying in Paris. She modelled it from a woman she met by chance in the city. However, the artist did not depict her sitter as an individual. Instead, Gordine represented what she saw as the visual characteristics of a ‘race’. The Caribbean island of Guadaloupe was then a French colony, and later became part of France. This work is rooted in the colonial attitudes prevalent in Europe at the time.
The term ‘negress’, the female form of ‘negro’, was commonly used in the 1920s. It is now acknowledged as highly offensive. The term derives from the Latin for black. From the 18th century onwards it became associated with the now debunked pseudoscience of ‘race biology’. This discriminatory classification of people based on their skin colour has been used to justify racism.