Gumbo z'herbes

Gumbo z'herbes by Andrew LaMar Hopkins 20x16

This is my latest "Creole Kitchen painting titled "Gumbo z'herbes" the painting centers around making the local New Orleans dish dating from the 19th century. When New Orleans Catholics were expected to abstain from eating meat during Lent, a meatless variety of gumbo, known as gumbo des herbes (literally "gumbo with herbs" and shortened to gumbo z'herbes), was often served in local Creole households. This variety combined a large number of greens – typically including turnips, mustard greens, and spinach. The greens were cooked to mush and strained through a sieve to produce a thick green liquid. Preparation for this variety of gumbo was time-consuming, and as Lenten restrictions have relaxed in the 20th century, the dish has become less popular. It is very rarely served in restaurants. In modern times, ham or crabmeat is occasionally added to this type of gumbo.

Gumbo z'herbes may have originated with the French, Germans, or West Africans. It has similarities to the French dish potage aux herbes ("soup with herbs"), as well as to the African callaloo. The meatless dish also bears striking resemblance to a dish often eaten in Germany on Maundy Thursday. German Catholics, obeying the Lenten rules, often served a stew made of seven different greens on this date.

Early Louisiana Creole armoire 

The painting in centered around a arched Creole flagstone courtyard with formal French parterre and topiary garden. In the center of the garden is a classical marble statue of Paris. The terracotta tiled floor of the Creole kitchen is full of locally made Louisiana Creole pieces with the cypress kitchen work table and the 18th century inlay cabriole leg armoire.  The pottery on the floor is French provincial. On the cypress work table are polished silver known at plate during the period. A silver epergne that would be the centerpiece of the dinning room table and to display fruit. A silver pitcher and Soup tureen. To the left of the table are two Wedgewood pottery obelisk moulds.  A clear jelly was moulded around a ceramic "core", often in the form of an obelisk decorated with hand-painted motifs,  These eccentric, but exquisite jellies were used as table centrepieces in the late Georgian dessert.

Antonio Canova's Paris 1812

A Creole lady rolls out dough for a pie at the work table as another chops up fresh greens for the Gumbo z'herbes. The cook puts herbs in the Gumbo pot at the Stewholes or Potager. In many ways, the stewholes were the most convenient and efficient means of cooking in this type of kitchen. They were at waist level, so there was no need to bend down over the hearth. They did not emit as much heat as the hearth, so it was easier on the cooks. They mostly burned charcoal, which was less expensive than the hardwoods needed for the hearth and oven and which allowed the cook to easily control the cooking temperature.

Charcoal fires are slow, even, and basically smokeless. They are well suited to the slow, simmering needed for many French and Creole recipes. The cook could put foods, such as gumbo or beans, on the stewholes and leave the kitchen without fear that it would burn. Simmering was also an important way to deal with the heat of New Orleans, because, prior to refrigeration, it was useful to be able to leave something simmering, so that it would not “go bad.” Stewholes were useful for more than just simmering; a cook could also create a hot flame to boil or fry on the stewholes.

18th century Potager at the Le Petit Trianon

The framed art in the kitchen include two Old Master paintings one over the Potager and the other over the armoire. other art are hand colored engravings of fruit.  Over the Potager hang copper pots, pans and molds. Next to the armoire is a 18th century copper water cistern. In front of the armoire two rabbits managed to take a radish.  

Gumbo z'herbes by Andrew LaMar Hopkins 20x16 available for sale here 

http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=1298550 

"Gumbo YA YA" a 18th century Creole New Orleans kitchen

Gumbo YA YA by Andrew LaMar Hopkins

"Gumbo YA YA" my latest finished painting is the third in a  series of Louisiana Creole kitchen paintings. Each painting has sold before i was finished painting it. Including this one. The first Creole kitchen painting was a commission. I was a little hesitant to paint it as I did not consider the kitchen a fine room of a house like my parlor or bedroom paintings. But once I started painting them. I have really got into thyme, each new kitchen painting is better then the other.  The kitchen is a room that just about everyone can relate too.  18th and 19th century kitchens were fascinating room filled with interesting cooking apparatus. 

 The lady of the house A Free woman of color has a pearl choker on and wears a tignon a type of headscarf, she gestures to a fashionably dressed Free man of color enjoying a flute of Dom Perignon champagne. 

This painting titled after the famous book by the same name that chronicles Louisiana folk tales and customs. The painting Gumbo YA YA! shows a 18th century New Orleans Creole kitchen. Owned by Free people of color, the lady of the house to the right hand corner of the painting has a pearl choker and wears a tignon a type of headscarf, a large piece of material tied or wrapped around the head to form a kind of turban that somewhat resembles the West African gélé. It was worn by Creole women in Louisiana beginning in the Spanish colonial period, and continuing to a lesser extent to the present day. She gestures to a fashionably dressed Free man of color enjoying a flute of Dom Perignon champagne. 

A quadroon house servant get's ready to pour Dom Perignon champagne into two crystal champagne flute's in anticipation of the meal of seafood gumbo being dished out of a large copper pot into a Louis XV porcelain soup tureen by the cook. 

A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved. In the United States, such persons were referred to as "free Negroes," though many were of mixed race (in the terminology of the day, mulattos, generally of European and African descent).

Free people of color or in French "gens de couleur libres" was especially a term used in New Orleans and the former Louisiana Territory, where a substantial third class of primarily mixed-race, free people developed. There were also free people of color in Caribbean and Latin American slave societies. These colonial societies classified mixed-race people in a variety of ways, generally related to appearance and to the proportion of African ancestry.

 A fashionably dressed mulatto boy holds a flower garland up to his dog. He is wearing a gray satin sailor suit tied at the wast with a pink gold fringe sash. French Queen Marie Antoinette was one of the first parents to dress her children in sailor suit's. A fashion that continued well into the 20th century. The potted orange tree was a symbol of wealth in the 18th century.

The center piece of the room is the elevated stuccoed bricked stove. Firewood would have been stored in the arches beneath the platform. A fire would have been started on the top platform for cooking. Smoke would have been vented up in the pyramid top flute and out of the kitchen.  Over the stove is a wrought iron chandelier.  

To show the Roman Catholic culture of Colonial Louisiana next to the stove is a copy of a bust of Christ by Italian artist Guido Reni. In the 18th century copies of famous paintings were not considered  valuable. The gold leaf frames were considered more costly then the painting.

A quadroon house servant get's ready to pour Dom Perignon champagne into two crystal champagne flute's in anticipation of the meal of seafood gumbo being dished out of a large copper pot into a Louis XV porcelain soup tureen by the cook. A fashionably dressed mulatto boy holds a flower garland up to his dog. He is wearing a gray satin sailor suit tied at the wast with a pink gold fringe sash. French Queen Marie Antoinette was one of the first parents to dress her children in sailor suit's. A fashion that continued well into the 20th century. 

The buffet a deux corps. The name is literally translated to “buffet with two bodies”, which provided an ingenious type of storage and sometimes display case in the upper part, plus it was able to be split into its component parts making it much easier to transport and deliver into the narrow doorways of homes of past centuries. 

The boy is standing next to a terracotta potted orange tree a symbol of wealth in the 18th century. Although furniture was being made locally in 18th century Louisiana, finer households had locally made French style Creole furniture mixed with imported furniture from Europe like the buffet a deux corps. The name is literally translated to “buffet with two bodies”, which provided an ingenious type of storage and sometimes display case in the upper part, plus it was able to be split into its component parts making it much easier to transport and deliver into the narrow doorways of homes of past centuries. 

Other imported furniture in the kitchen include the the Provincial tall case clock and the turned legged work table in the center of the room. Locally made Creole pieces of furniture would include the ladder back chair and the cabriole leg table holding the copper water cistern. The center piece of the room is the elevated stuccoed bricked stove. Firewood would have been stored in the arches beneath the platform. A fire would have been started on the top platform for cooking. Smoke would have been vented up in the pyramid top flute and out of the kitchen.  Over the stove is a wrought iron chandelier.  

On the shelf of the pyramid flute of the stove, displayed are 18th century French pottery and beautiful hand-painted faience and ceramics that were instant sources of pride for the local populace and a large green glass wine jar. To show the Roman Catholic culture of Colonial Louisiana next to the stove is a copy of a bust of Christ by Italian artist Guido Reni. In the 18th century copies of famous paintings were not considered  valuable. The gold leaf frames were considered more costly then the painting.  A collection of copper pots and pans are displayed on the walls. Two French olive jars were used for food storage. On the top of the buffet a deux corps are woven baskets. The architecture of the rooms features a terracotta tile floor. A beamed ceiling showing the upper cypress floor. A French door. The walls are painted a light French blue popular in the 18th century.  

Latest masterpiece dropped off at the Art Gallery

 "Garçonnière"

Last Friday I dropped off 4 of the 7 painting I hand been working on. Today I dropped two more and was happy to find out that one more of my painting had sold this week "Greek Revival Dandy # 1. This painting showing a young fashionably dressed gentleman in front of a Greek Revival doorway.

Greek Revival Dandy # 1

My latest masterpiece titled "Garçonnière" features a Antebellum French Vernacular architecture garçonnière a bachelor's apartment or quarters. In the French Creole South when boys in the house became teenagers they were moved out of the main home into separate quarters on the property so they could entertain and come and go without disturbing the main house ( mostly the female ocupants). This garçonnière is inspired by one at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens located in Louisiana.

My painting of a garçonnière is inspired by one at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens located in Louisiana

Around the garçonnière we have a French Creole teenage garçon fashionably dressed in a period of the 1830's gesturing to his home. His dog runs past him after a riding party on the other side of the garçonnière. The garçon stands by a classical stucco pedestal with Greek Palmetto/honeysuckle motif with a cast iron Medici style urn with ferns on top, typical garden ornaments of the Romantic period.

A French Creole teenage garçon fashionably dressed in the period of the 1830's gesturing to his home. His dog runs past him after a riding party on the other side of the garçonnière.

A riding party on the other side of the garçonnière.

"Garçonnière" framed and at the Art Gallery

Another painting I finished is a painting of a Angel titled "Mobile Angel of Abundance". Showing a Angel is flowing robe holding a golden shell of Abundance. She is in a colorful sky.

"Mobile Angel of Abundance"

My paintings at the Gallery