Tignon is the Clue Pin

Unknown, Portrait of a Young Woman, late 18th century. Pastel, 40.6 x 32.4 cm. Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, USA. Little is known about the circumstances of this portrait. The sitter has previously been misidentified as two other women of color, the poet Phillis Wheatley and the heiress Dido Elizabeth Belle, though neither possibility is likely. The sitter’s headscarf, called a tignon, is not a style that was fashionable in Europe, but was worn in the Caribbean and parts of the colonized American mainland. After laws were introduced forcing women of color to cover their hair, many turned their tignons into marks of distinction, using elaborate knots and expensive materials, like this fine white silk. The portrait has previou...