Portrait of a French Deputy
I haven't done a thing for Black History Month this year, so here, a wonderful image from Girodet (Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, whom mousme was kind enough to identify as male for me before I tracked him down on English-language sites, doh!).
Portrait du citoyen Jean-Baptiste Belley, représentant des Colonies (1797) by Girodet (Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson) -- "c'est le portrait de Jean-Baptiste Belley, un député noir de Saint-Domingue qui a le plus retenu mon attention lors de la visite de sa collection à Montréal." The caption goes on and on at the original site, something about tight or revealing pantaloons, I think (feel free to tell me), and certainly about sex appeal, which are the only two words in English there. Whether Député Jean-Baptiste Belley was himself from San Domingue, or France, or some other French possession, I don't know. (Yeah, now I do, see under pic; more about the racial/racist implications of his pants, as well.)
EDIT: Okay, now I do. Belley was enslaved in Senegal at the age of two & shipped to the Caribbean. In 1793, after being wounded six times in armed struggle against the colonists, he was elected one of three delegates to France for 1794 seating of the French National Convention which abolished slavery, returning when he lost his seat in 1797, the year of this portrait. Belley is considered the first black man to have been elected since the other two were mulatto & white. One site claims Belley became "lost to history" in Haiti while fighting the Napoleonic army which was seeking to re-establish slavery there. However, Wiki says he returned to Haiti in 1802 as a gendarme, was himself arrested and returned to France, and died a prisoner there in 1805.
Though the portrait by a European shows Belley in aristocratic dress, leaning on the bust of an egalitarian philosopher, critics cited over at Wiki assert that the depiction of his apparently considerable personal anatomy is actually a slam, meant to portray him as an animalistic "noble savage" type, emphasis on the savage. I don't think I go along with that. Despite my bone-deep ignorance of most artistic conventions, nonetheless it seems to me in any age, most men, whether viewers or subjects of portraiture, would consider it, or interpret it, as a compliment to be painted with such a admiring & generous brush, whether it reflects actual anatomy accurately or not. OTOH, I am not known for my subtlety, nor do I personally consider a petite appendage proof of "civilisation."
My dear Art Institute of Chicago has Girodet's very complete pencil portrait done prior to the painting. It also shows certain folds in the fabric, though with a slightly different contour which you might interpret as not quite so immodest. Click the image there to see more clearly.
Portrait du citoyen Jean-Baptiste Belley, représentant des Colonies (1797) by Girodet (Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson) -- "c'est le portrait de Jean-Baptiste Belley, un député noir de Saint-Domingue qui a le plus retenu mon attention lors de la visite de sa collection à Montréal." The caption goes on and on at the original site, something about tight or revealing pantaloons, I think (feel free to tell me), and certainly about sex appeal, which are the only two words in English there. Whether Député Jean-Baptiste Belley was himself from San Domingue, or France, or some other French possession, I don't know. (Yeah, now I do, see under pic; more about the racial/racist implications of his pants, as well.)
EDIT: Okay, now I do. Belley was enslaved in Senegal at the age of two & shipped to the Caribbean. In 1793, after being wounded six times in armed struggle against the colonists, he was elected one of three delegates to France for 1794 seating of the French National Convention which abolished slavery, returning when he lost his seat in 1797, the year of this portrait. Belley is considered the first black man to have been elected since the other two were mulatto & white. One site claims Belley became "lost to history" in Haiti while fighting the Napoleonic army which was seeking to re-establish slavery there. However, Wiki says he returned to Haiti in 1802 as a gendarme, was himself arrested and returned to France, and died a prisoner there in 1805.
Though the portrait by a European shows Belley in aristocratic dress, leaning on the bust of an egalitarian philosopher, critics cited over at Wiki assert that the depiction of his apparently considerable personal anatomy is actually a slam, meant to portray him as an animalistic "noble savage" type, emphasis on the savage. I don't think I go along with that. Despite my bone-deep ignorance of most artistic conventions, nonetheless it seems to me in any age, most men, whether viewers or subjects of portraiture, would consider it, or interpret it, as a compliment to be painted with such a admiring & generous brush, whether it reflects actual anatomy accurately or not. OTOH, I am not known for my subtlety, nor do I personally consider a petite appendage proof of "civilisation."
My dear Art Institute of Chicago has Girodet's very complete pencil portrait done prior to the painting. It also shows certain folds in the fabric, though with a slightly different contour which you might interpret as not quite so immodest. Click the image there to see more clearly.