A woman stands facing half-left, with the right foot crossed behind the left and her arms bent, her hands resting on her shoulders so that her forearms partly cover her breasts. She is wearing an apron-skirt of fringed deerskin. Her hair has a fringe in front and is caught at the neck behind, while beneath the fringe, a headband is visible. Her ear ornament consists of two or more blue beads hanging from the lobe. She wears a short, two-string necklace of alternate black and blue beads from which hangs a large bead (with two others) to form a pendant. She is tattooed or painted on the forehead, cheeks, chin, wrists, the left upper arm and the calves. Her left foot, as drawn, has the toes on the wrong side.
Inscribed in dark brown ink, at the top, "One of the wyues of Wyngyno. "
John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonkin peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard.
