Charlotte Amalie

U.S. Virgin Islands

In conjunction with Section Mangravite painted a set for the Governors’ Mansion in the Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands. These were produced as the Section was ending, my current research has not extended to cover this set of murals however dark microfilm images of the murals were in the Archive of American Art, having looked at these my current understanding of the series of three murals is as follows;

Right Mural Panel

On the left side in the foreground two open barrels sit. In the center stands a woman with her back to the viewer. She is wearing a hat and apron while working with a pile of sugarcane lying on the table in front of her. Sitting on a box at her side, deeper in the picture plane is a young girl, almost hidden behind the woman’s skirt. A male figure looks out at the viewer as he walks from behind the two women toward the right side of the image carrying a load sugar cane on his left shoulder. In the background there is a distant mountain and sugarcane fields. (The back of this image scan reads "Native Workers (right side of the murals)".)

Center Mural Panel

The center is a naval captain pulls on the ropes to raise an America flag. On the left behind him stand sailors lined up receding at a diagonal from the picture plane. Beyond their line of white uniforms you can see palm trees and a few buildings. On the right of the flag a sailor holds the bottom of the flag as it is raised, his foot almost stepping out of the frame into the viewers space. In the background behind the sailor are figures who appear to be the locals, with their hands over their hearts in allegiance to the flag. Deeper into the image is a tree in which more figures have climbed to see over the crowd. In the deepest plane, making up the top portion of the mural is the sea with naval ships at the very top of the drawing the horizon line, the top of the flag in the foreground the only element to touch the upper boarder. (The back of this image scan reads "Hoisting the American Flag (Center Panel)".)

Left Mural Panel

In the foreground a pyramidal grouping of figures. The top figure facing out to the viewer, hold a sword in his right hand and a flag in the left. He is placing the flag it into the hill top in which they stand. To his right are two men both with their backs to the viewer. The one man wears a hooded cape, appearing to be a religious figure and closest to the viewer wears a tunic and a feathered cap. He holds a spear in his hand, on his left in profile is a “native” bound by his hands to the fifth figure. The fifth man, standing on the right of the central figure but on a lower level looks back slightly at the bound man holding a concurring flag in his other hand.