Stedman/ Blake/ Tardieu Joanna Stipple engraving 19x14 cm, later colour From: Stedman, John Gabriel Voyage a Surinam…… Paris, Buisson, 1799 Excellent condition. No restorations. Joanna as a young girl became Stedman’s wife and mother of his first child. Gabriel Stedman served in Dutch military service in Surinam who, among other duties, were in charge of returning the escaped slaves, called maroons, who had settled small communities in Surinam’s interior. Stedman was appalled by the treatment of slaves by the Dutch and documented what he saw in both writing and in drawings. His book was published in England in 1798 and his drawings were made into prints by the best of artists of the day, among them William Blake. In the French edition the prints were done by Tardieu, the elder.