Attributed to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson
French, 1767-1824
Jean-Baptiste Belley
INV-4427
Attributed to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson
French, 1767-1824c. 1797
Jean-Baptiste Belley
Attributed to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson French, 1767-1824 →graphitedrawings (visual works)
Date
c. 1797
Medium
Black chalk, with stumping, and traces of pen and black ink, heightened with touches of opaque white, on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
36.9 × 30.3 cm (14 9/16 × 11 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation
Sold into slavery as a boy, Jean-Baptiste Belley (1746–1805) bought his freedom in 1764. Belley fought in the American War of Independence and served as a captain in the French army during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) fighting to abolish slavery on the island of Saint-Domingue (now Hispaniola). In 1793 he was elected to the National Convention in Paris, becoming its first black deputy.
Belley wears the uniform of a representative to the Convention. As we know from the painting for which this is a highly finished study or copy drawing, his hat feathers and sash are the colors of the French Republic: blue, white, and red. He leans against a marble plinth supporting a bust of the French philosopher and enemy of slavery Guillaume Raynal (1713–1796).
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