Vieux Carré

Vieux Carré by Andrew LaMar Hopkins

Yesterday my painting titled Vieux Carré sold in Nadine Blakes shop located at 1036 Royal street here in in New Orleans. Nadine has sold over 16 of my paintings over the last 6 weeks. This has been exciting and a little scary as I can't paint 16 paintings in a 6 week period. I try to have on hand 30 of my paintings available at any time and now I'm down to under half that amount.  "Vieux Carré" showing a French Quarter Streetscape of about 1830. 

Depicts a street scene of the Old French Quarter in French "Vieux Carré".  I got the ideal to paint this painting walking down Royal street. The colors came first. I thought wouldn't a praline colored stucco building with light blue shutters look great on a French Quarter building. Next I picked out a building in the French Quarter I liked a two story Greek Revival Creole town house that I could use the colors on located on Burgundy street.

This is the balcony of the house in the French Quarter that I got the ideal to do Vieux Carré.

Vieux Carré

 3rd transform this scene back to the early 19th century. A free woman of color with a  tignon headdress sweeps the flagstone sidewalk in front of her early 19th century Creole cottage. A  tignon Creole of color street vendor sells Creole Delicacies to a French Creole lady on the flagstone sidewalk, a common sight in 19th and 20th century Creole New Orleans.

A tignon Creole of color street vendor sells Creole Delicacies to a French Creole lady on the flagstone sidewalk, a common sight in 19th and 20th century Creole New Orleans.

 This Antebellum street scene was common in 19th century New Orleans but New Orleans was the only place in America where black and white property owners live side by side. gens de couleur owned about one-third of the land in the French Quarter . Free woman of color obtained land in the Quarter and surrounding areas most by Plaçage.

 Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into the equivalent of common-law marriages with women of color, of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning "to place with". The women were not legally recognized as wives but were known as placées; their relationships were recognized among the free people of color as mariages de la main gauche or left-handed marriages. 

They became institutionalized with contracts or negotiations that settled property on the woman and her children, and in some cases gave them freedom if enslaved. The system flourished throughout the French and Spanish colonial periods, reaching its zenith during the latter, between 1769 and 1803. It was most practiced in New Orleans, where planter society had created enough wealth to support the system. It also took place in the Latin-influenced cities of Natchez and Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; St. Augustine and Pensacola, Florida] as well as Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti). Plaçage became associated with New Orleans as part of its cosmopolitan society.

 A free woman of color with a  tignon headdress sweeps the flagstone sidewalk in front of her early 19th century Creole cottage a common sight in 19th and 20th century Creole New Orleans.

A typical French Quarter early 19th century Creole cottage. This type of house was obtained by Free woman of color with Plaçage.  

A Creole gentleman surveys the French Quarter from his Classical cast iron Veranda.

This painting also incorporates Neoclassical wrought iron alley gates. Wrought iron gas light. Cast iron urns planted with kumquats. A wood grained mahogany front door. A set of Old Paris porcelain vases can be seen in the window. A french olive jar on the flagstone sidewalk next to a potted kumquat. Banana trees can be seen over the brick wall.  On the flagstone sidewalk in front of the house is a granite carriage step is signed and dated by the artist.     

My exhibit is still up at Nadine Blake, If you are in New Orleans stop by. 1036 Royal St

New Orleans, Louisiana 70116

http://www.nadineblake.com