Portrait of a Couple from Suriname
The young man portrayed here is 33-year old Johannes Ellis, who was born in Ghana. His beautiful wife is Maria Louisa de Hart, 19 years of age. The couple is wealthy and dressed in the latest fashion. According to family tradition, the portrait dates from the year they married, 1845. We now know that it was taken in Paramaribo by one of two travelling American daguerreotypists, who visited countries in the Carribean in the spring of 1846.