The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently acquired “Bélizaire and the Frey Children,” a 19th-century Louisiana portrait with a secret.
For more than 100 years the image of an enslaved child was erased. This is his story. A New York Times video.
The name Bélizaire is a French word for a West Indian-Haitian name meaning “beautiful river.” This is one of the very few portraits in the USA commissioned by a family of that era that depicts an enslaved person.
“Bélizaire and the Frey Children” is an 1837 painting created by Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans, one of the most prolific and celebrated portrait artists in Louisiana. The painting shows the enslaved Afro-Creole teenager Bélizaire with the three children of New Orleans merchant and banker Frederick Frey and his wife, Coralie Frey.
Frey’s family purchased Bélizaire and his mother, an enslaved woman named Sallie, when Bélizaire was six years old. He was born in approximately 1822 — he would have been about 15 years old when the portrait was painted. In 1856 Bélizaire was sold to the Evergreen Plantation, a sugar plantation in Louisiana. Researchers have been unable to determine what happened to him after 1860. The painting is the only known image that exists of one of the 400 persons who were enslaved at the Evergreen Plantation.
The Restoration of “Bélizaire and the Frey Children”
Around the turn of the 20th century, a member of the Frey family had the figure of Bélizaire painted out of the composition. When Coralie’s great-great granddaughter, Audrey Grasser donated the painting to the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1972, the museum was informed that an enslaved person had been painted out, but no action was taken to restore the work.
The painting was sold by the museum in 2005 and acquired by Louisiana art collector Jeremy K. Simien in 2021 who had the work fully restored by Craig Crawford. Simien also commissioned historian Katy Morlas Shannon to research the identity of the children in the painting. She discovered Bélizaire’s name and year of birth.
The Story in the Painting*
Bélizaire is the focal point of the painting. He towers over the other children. Notice how the branches of the tree create a halo around his head. He is the only figure whose head has the sky and the heavens behind it, serving as a backdrop to his face. He stands, leaning against the tree, a stance of relaxed confidence. His countenance is mature and masculine.
His body is the only one that connects to all three of the natural elements present in the portrait — earth, water, and air (sky). He is the only figure wearing multiple colors, blue pants (reminiscent of the water), a white shirt (reminiscent of the clouds), and a yellow/cream jacket (reminiscent of the sunlight). The others are in monochromatic attire.
Bélizaire’s fingers point to a ship in the background. The ship is the only man made object in the painting, symbolizing progress, technology, and exploration. Bélizaire is the only figure not gazing at the painter; instead he looks off to the side. Viewers want to know what he is thinking.
*From a description of the painting made by @AmberJulia
HAVarts is grateful to our Board Chair, Simone Bouyer, for bringing “Belizaire and the Frey Children” to our attention. The painting and it’s provenance are both remarkable. It is noteworthy that Belizaire was painted so beautifully during a time when America’s history was so ugly. The painting’s provenance metaphorically showcases the resilience and restoration of African American’s humanity.