Art Institute of Chicago

Jean-Baptiste Belley

Attributed to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson

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

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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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