4 minute read
Unveiling Freedom at Langdon House
Above: Maya Michaud at work on a study for her portrait of Ona Judge.
This fall, we installed a portrait of Ona Judge at Langdon House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Judge will be familiar to those who have taken a tour of Langdon House as the "never caught" woman who was enslaved by George and Martha Washington and who selfemancipated by escaping to Portsmouth. Maine-based artist Maya Michaud created the portrait of Judge, drawing inspiration from Historic New England’s eighteenth-century costume collection and historical descriptions of Judge. We have already updated our Langdon House tours to talk about Cyrus Bruce, a formerly enslaved man who worked as the Langdons' majordomo, and other people who worked at the site. Michaud's portrait of Judge will facilitate a fuller interpretation of Portsmouth's Black history on our tours. This year, Study Center Research Fellow Timothy Hastings is conducting additional research on labor history in Portsmouth and at Langdon House to support ongoing changes to our site interpretation and further highlight contributions of those workers or community residents whose stories are often overlooked.—Melissa Kershaw, Regional Site Administrator, Northern New England
Artist Statement
Maya Michaud | Maya Rose Artworks
Ona “Oney” Judge Staines was a courageous and resilient woman who sought to make her own destiny and pave the way toward her freedom. This portrait of Ona Judge, a former slave of George and Martha Washington, is a depiction of Ona in her twenties, following her escape to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she was discovering her new way of life. This is my vision of her learning to take on the role of a free woman, where she develops a strong and confident stature while holding her head high. Her posture and ambiguous facial expression portray someone who has many secrets and stories yet to be revealed.
The composition and lighting are seen throughout eighteenth and nineteenth century portraiture and are qualities that I wanted to convey in Ona’s painting. This is an expression of her life as both a former slave and her ability to fight for her freedom whose image can live on in the history of New England. The color palette of Ona’s portrait conveys a sense of peace and calmness that Ona brought to the people around her, with the warm glow behind her to represent a sense of light and hope that is present within her story of resilience and bravery. This glow that resonates from her and is surrounded by darkness is symbolic of a candle in the night, which shows how Ona is lighting her own path and being her own guide to freedom.
Ona’s portrait was created with vibrant acrylic paints and various newspaper articles. There are no known images of Ona. Her story has been passed on and shared through newspapers, which emphasize the importance of the written word in this painting. The written word is a form of storytelling that can live on through the ages and emulates the idea that Ona has stories about her life that are told and untold. All of the newspapers were chosen deliberately to convey who Ona might have been during her life and the experiences that she might have gone through. I portrayed her in eighteenth-century attire that is of higher quality in structure and design, but which has a worn-in appearance to show her hardships as a working-class woman. The red in her shawl portrays the sense of strength and sacrifice that came with her escape, as well as the feeling of love and loss for her family who she left behind. She has an incredible story of bravery and hardship that is inspiring to anyone who hears it.
A Community Grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation made this commission possible. To learn more about Maine-based artist Maya Michaud and view her portfolio, visit sites.google.com/view/mayaroseartworks.
