Black Portraiture

Black Portraiture ZEBREGS&RÖELL

Black Portraiture.

ZEBREGS&RÖELL

Prof. Paul H.D. Kaplan

Dr. Annemarie Jordan-Gschwend Séverine Laborie Dickie Zebregs (ed.)

ZEBREGS&RÖELL

“We sell Stories, not Fairytales.”

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The Long Tradition of Black Courtiers in European Art

By Prof. Paul H.D. Kaplan

Rulers in the Christian zones of Europe began to feature Black Africans as distinctive members of their entourage at least as early as the last years of the twelfth century. Visual artists were quick to reflect such practices, occasionally in direct illustrations but more frequently by incorporating Black figures in imagery that celebrated royal status in both sacred and secular art. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (reigned 1212-1250), who both ruled over Black subjects in southern Italy and aspired to a kind of global sovereignty which Black African characters could efficiently denote, was a leading force in introducing images of this type. There is even a chance that his African-descended chamberlain, Johannes Maurus (John the “Moor”), was to be understood as the subject of a surviving sculpture carved in grey stone.

While the Mediterranean slave trade brought only a relatively small number of sub-Saharan Africans to Christian Europe in the later Middle Ages, dark-skinned people continued to be prized as servants to the elite. The Limbourg Brothers’ Très Riches Heures (1413-1416) includes a portrait of the Duke of Berry’s nephew King Charles VI of France, in the guise of one of the three biblical Magi, attended by two Black African followers, Charles’ royal father, John the Good, had in 1354 received the gift of a presumably enslaved African man called Jehan Blanc from the King of Aragon. Another Black person was presented by the same Iberian ruler to the Duke of Berry himself in 1382. With the rise of the Atlantic slave trade in the

course of the fifteenth century, the supply of Black courtiers increased. The Gonzaga rulers of Mantua in Northern Italy were especially avid consumers, as manifested by documents and several images by Andrea Mantegna, who depicted Black Africans as servants to aristocratic women. By the 1520s, the Venetian painter Titian had introduced an extremely influential pictorial template in portraiture, in which a Black servant attended

Head of a Black African (Johannes Maurus?), mid13th century, Museo Civico G. Fiorelli, Lucera Limbourg Brothers, Meeting of the Magi, f. 51v of the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry, c. 1413-1416 (detail), Musée Condé, Chantilly Andrea Mantegna, Camera picta, c. 1470 (detail of the oculus), Ducal Palace, Mantua

upon a much larger and more central elite subject. Titian’s initial version of this format shows Laura Eustochia, the official mistress of Duke Alfonso I d’Este of Ferrara, receiving the worshipful gaze of a gorgeously dressed Black child.

Also from the 1520s is a striking portrait by the Netherlandish master Jan Mostaert of a Black man, armed and fashionably dressed in the contemporary European style. His identity remains unconfirmed, but it is plausible to see him as a Black courtier to the Habsburg rulers of the Low Countries, perhaps a man known in archival records as Christophle le More (Christopher the ‘Moor,’ or the Black). This approach to representing a Black courtier as the solitary subject of a portrait, which evokes the rediscovered portrait of Badin, remains a rarity in European art of the sixteenth century and seventeenth centuries. Instead, Titian’s template of the inclusion of the Black figure in a secondary role became the norm and, by the 1600s, to be commonly found in the Low Countries, France, England, and Italy. Some interesting variations do appear in Italy, however, such as Guillem van Deynen’s group portrait of the Doge of Genoa with his whole family, attended by a group of courtiers including the artist himself, as well as a very dignified Black man in a lace collar. The Medici in Florence were especially taken with Black courtiers: one man, called Pietro Moro, appeared as a servant in a conventional portrait of a young prince, but

Titian, Laura Eustochia with a Black Child, 1520s, Kisters Collection, Kreuzlingen Guillem van Deynen, Family Portrait of Doge Agostino Doria (detail), c 1603, Private collection, Paris Jan Mostaert, Portrait of a Man, c. 1525-1530, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

also in a triple portrait (1634) consisting entirely of servants, where he is accompanied by two white lower-status country women. A few decades later (1661), the Black courtier Giovannino Buonaccorsi (also called Giovannino Moro), a notable singer and performer in early opera, was juxtaposed with a white musician in another portrait that again omits elite subjects. Both men are shown as they make music, and the performance focus is interesting since we know that Badin also had a period at the Swedish court (1769-1771) when he performed as an actor and a dancer.

Though not visible in these particular Medici works, after 1650 many images of Black courtiers display a disturbing new feature: the slave collar. Based on an ancient Roman usage which had been intended to constrain and humiliate recaptured fugitives from slavery, the slave collar in Eu-

ropean art is typically a finely crafted object, often apparently made of silver, which is both a kind of embellishment and an inexorable marker of subjugation. Even young children serving as court pages, who could hardly have been expected to try to flee, are shown wearing such collars, as in the French emigré painter Antoine Pesne’s 1714 portrait of the crown prince of Prussia (later known as Frederick the Great) and his sister Wilhelmine.

The actual legal status of Black court servants varied, though it is clear that most entered courtly service while they were still enslaved. Manumission was not infrequently granted, as was the case with Badin, whose 1776 portrait shows not a metal collar but a respectable white one. However, a 1770 portrait attributed to Francesco Guardi – a work which has some interesting parallels with the Badin picture – demonstrates that even as the concept of abolition began to gather adherents in the later eighteenth century, the slave collar did not immediately disappear. Guardi’s portrait focuses entirely on Lazzaro Zen (formerly known as Alì), the enslaved servant of the patrician Zen family of Venice. The picture commemorates his baptism after a period of several months of careful religious instruction in the Venetian pious institution of the Catecumeni. Lazzaro Zen, like Badin, was baptised with the family name of his aristocratic sponsors – Zen’s first name replicated that of a recently deceased young family member. His elaborate and expensive clothing articulates his affiliation with the family (the blue jacket and silvery fur replicate the colours of the family arms, also seen on his hat) just as the colours of Badin’s outfit are those of the Swedish royal family. The slave collar remains around Lazzaro Zen’s neck, even though the official baptism he experienced was supposed to trigger manumission. In this respect, Badin’s portrait presents its subject in a superior social position, and it should also be noted that Badin does not wear an earring, as Zen does. The earring was an exoticising marker regularly attributed to Black subjects – especially court servants – by European artists.

Antoine Pesne, Wilhelmine of Prussia and Frederick (later Frederick the Great) with a Black Attendant, 1714, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin

Il Volterrano, Panbollito and Giovanni Buonaccorsi (Giovannino Moro), 1661, Private Collection

Giusto Suttermans, Pietro Moro, Domenica dalle Cascine and La Cecca di Pratolino, 1634,St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis

The earlier tradition of painted representations of Black courtiers was probably best known to Swedish artists through exposure to Danish and German examples. The Prussian court was particularly attracted to this motif, in works by Pesne (already mentioned), Wilhelm von Knoebelsdorf, and Anna Rosina Lisiewska. The Swedish queen, Louisa Ulrika, Badin’s primary patron and protector at court, was herself born a Prussian Hohenzollern princess, the sister of King Frederick the Great. While no portrait showing her with a Black attendant is known, Antoine Pesne’s 1744 likeness of her, made just before her marriage to the Crown Prince (later King) of Sweden, takes up the theme of the interplay between black and white in a more complex and allusive fashion. A bejewelled swatch of black fabric ornaments her hair, and its lower portion comes to a point on her pale forehead. Similarly, her right hand holds out an unusual carnival mask, which looks uncannily like Louisa’s pale face with a black layer overlaid from the tip of the nose upward. (In Venice, where such masks originated, both black and white versions were used, but the two colours did not appear in the same mask.) It is interesting to reflect not only on how Louisa Ulrika’s experience of Black Africans at the Prussian court may have shaped her interactions with Badin, but also on how Pesne’s imagery may have shaped her visual perception of the meaning of Blackness in a courtly environment. Pesne’s portrait of Louisa Ulrika accompanied her to Sweden, where it remains. Still, it is also important to emphasise that both the recently widowed Louisa Ulrika and Badin had spent a year (1771-1772) back at the Prussian court of Frederick the Great so that the many Prussian images of Black courtiers would have been fresh in their mind in the mid-1770s.

Select Bibliography

Alff, Carolin, Susanne Evers, and Hatem Hegab, Prussian Palaces. Colonial Histories. Places, Biographies and Collections, Berlin, Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Sandstein-Verlag, 2023

Bindman, David, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds., The Image of the Black in Western Art, vols. 2-4, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010-2012

Earle, T. F. and K.J.P. Lowe, eds, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Cambridge (UK), Cambridge University Press, 2005

Honeck, Mischa, Martin Klimke, and Anne Kuhlmann, eds, Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250-1914, New York, Berghahn Books, 2013

Kaplan, Paul H. D., “Black Africans in Hohenstaufen Iconography”, in: Gesta, vol. 26, no. 1, 1987, 29-36

Kaplan, Paul H. D., “Titian’s Laura Dianti and the Origins of the Motif of the Black Page in Portraiture”, in: Antichità Viva, vol. 21, no. 1, 1982, 11-18, and no. 4, 1982, 10-18

Kuhlmann-Smirnov, Anne, Schwarze Europäer im Alten Reich: Handel, Migration, Hof, Göttingen, V&R unipress, 2013

Schreuder, Esther, “‘Blacks’ in Court Culture in the Period 1300-1900; Propaganda and Consolation, in: Black is Beautiful: Rubens to Dumas, Zwolle, Waanders, 2008, 20-31

Wilbourne, Emily, Voice, Slavery and Race, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2023

About the author

Paul H. D. Kaplan is a Professor of Art History at Purchase College, SUNY. He is the author of The Rise of the Black Magus in Western Art (1985) and Contraband Guides: Race, Transatlantic Culture and the Arts in the Civil War Era (2020). He is a contributor to volumes 2, 3 and 4 of Harvard University Press’s The Image of the Black in Western Art (new ed., 2010-2012). His most recent publication is African Venice (2024), a guide to the Black presence in the lagoon city.

Francesco Guardi, Lazzaro Zen, 1770, IRE, Venice Antoine Pesne, Louisa Ulrika of Prussia (later Queen of Sweden), 1744, (detail), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Studio of Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746)

Allegory of Africa

Oil on canvas, H. 74.5 x 61 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Italy (including export permit)

This is another version of one of the, at the time highly popular, preparatory studies in oil on canvas by Francesco Trevisani, for the allegories of the four continents as depicted in mosaic in the Baptistry of St. Peter in Rome. Commissioned by Pope Clement XI Albani (1649-1721) in 1709, Trevisani made the cartoons for the mosaics, which can today be found on the ceiling of the Baptistry.

The four continents America, Europe, Asia & Africa Collection National Gallery of Palazzo Barberini in Rome

Jakob Björk (1726-1793)

Portrait of Fredrik Adolf Ludvig Gustav Albrecht ‘Badin’ Couschi (1750-1822)

Dated 1776 Januar[i?] on the reverse

Oil on canvas, H. 77 x W. 57.5 cm

Provenance:

- Collection of Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, Queen of Sweden, Drottningholm Palace (since 1776); thence by descent

- Collection of Princess Sophia Albertina, inherited in 1782, and on display in Arvfurstens Palast, Stockholm (after 1793)

Recorded in Princess Sophia’s 1829 post-mortem inventory, fol. 110, no. 79 (in French)

‘Portrait de Mr Badin, appraised for 20 Swedish riksdaler’.

- Noble collection, South Germany (before 1981 to the mid-1980s)

- Private collection, South Germany (utill 2023)

Exhibitions:

Berlin-Museum, Le Musée Sentimentale De Prusse: Aus grosser Zeit!, Berlin, 16 August - 15 November 1981

Literature:

Marie-Louise Plessen & Daniel Spoerri ed., Le Musée Sentimentale De Prusse: Aus grosser Zeit!, exhibition catalogue, Verl. Frölich u. Kaufmann, Berlin, 1981, pp. 158-159 (ill.) (as attributed to the French painter Antoine Pesne (1683-1757), active at the Prussian court in Berlin, the sitter identified as a ‘Moorish’ boy)

This painting is an unsigned portrait replica of a lost pastel portrait by Gustav Lundberg (1695-1786), dating from 1776. Björk is known to have worked solely as a copyist in Lundberg’s studio. Many of his portraits are known and highly recognisable in style and colouring, of which some still retain their original version in pastel by Lundberg.

This original mid-eighteenth-century gilded limewood frame was hand-carved in Stockholm in a Rococo style favoured by the court of Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia and her son Gustav III (r. 1771-1792). Influenced by Louis XV boiserie carving, popular in France, the Rococo favoured elaborate curves, delicate flowers, flyaway scrolls, and extravagant asymmetry. This was the age of the virtuoso master carver, who created luxurious, richly carved, ornamental frames, respected today as sculptures in their own right. Carvers in France and Sweden collaborated with the répareur, who carved details into the gesso and coated the mouldings before gilding. Afterwards, the doreur or gilder added punchwork or engraved decorative features, deploying varying shades of gold with either matt or burnished finishes.1

This frame comprises curved, scrolling lines embellished with delicate, almost three-dimensional flowers. The four projecting outer edges are typical of the period, with ornate cartouches shaped like S-curves reminiscent of seashells interspersed with scrolls in the centre (above and below) and on both sides. The straight rectilinear lines are punched with delicate diamond patterns. Gustav Lundberg closely collaborated with leading wood carvers and gilders in Stockholm, including the master carver Gustaf Johan Fast (1794-?). It is an exquisite, high-quality frame closely following French prototypes, commissioned from a master carver, perhaps even from Gustav Fast, soon after the portrait’s completion.

The Discovery of a Lost Masterpiece: An African Boy at the Swedish Court in the Eighteenth Century

By Dr Annemarie Jordan Gschwend

‘Only few tell their story of their life truthfully. This is because of pride, selfishness, fear, sometime shyness, the protection of friends. These five reasons often hinder truth that should be told. But the one who writes these lines, shall not falter, on the road to truth, and [nor shall I make] the reader a fool. The colour of the one who writes is not the same as on what he writes on, but nevertheless, the same as the colour of the lines’.

- Badin (née Couschi), Personal diary, c. 1802-18072

This recently discovered and hitherto unknown portrait of a young black African man wearing the blue and yellow attire of the Swedish court has been identified as the enslaved boy brought to Denmark and Sweden from the Danish colony and island of St. Croix in the Caribbean (Fig. 1).3

According to Lars Wickström’s in-depth study, Badin was born in 1750 into slavery with the surname of Couschi, after his maternal grandmother’s brother.4 His father was named Andris, his mother Narzi, his brother Coffi, and the entire family belonged to the Danish Governor of St. Croix, Christian Lebrecht von Pröck (1718-1780), who returned to Europe in 1758 with the eight-year-old Couschi. Pröck subsequently passed the child to a Dane, Gustaf de Brunck, who, in turn, presented him to the Swedish Royal Court in 1760. Couschi is considered the most famous black African or Afro-Caribbean in Swedish history.5 As the boy transitioned into his new home, he was given the French nickname ‘Badin’6 by Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia (1720-1782), the spouse of King Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp (r. 1751-1771), to whom he was gifted.7 The queen bestowed this sobriquet because of Badin’s playful character and childish mischievousness. It would ultimately become his official surname. In the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment (in Sweden known as the Age of Liberty), Queen Louisa manumitted and adopted Badin, raising her foster child alongside her royal children who were the same age, albeit Badin was allowed more space and freedom than the royal children. In 1768, he was baptised at age eighteen in the chapel of Queen Louisa’s impressive Baroque residence, Drottningholm, outside Stockholm.8 The extended royal family assisted at this celebration. His foster parents and siblings acted as his godparents, while his given name, Fredrik Adolf Ludvig Gustav Albrecht (c. 1750-1822), reflects the regal names of past and present Swedish kings and princes. Badin’s positive identification here is based upon two portrayals, one a portrait executed the previous year in 1775 by Queen Louisa’s court painter (hovkonterfejare), the renowned Rococo pastelist Gustav Lundberg (1695-1786). This earlier work is discussed at length below. Drawings and caricatures made of the young Badin while growing up at court sketched by artists who frequented the Stockholm Royal Castle and Drottningholm Palace have survived, two of which are also discussed below. It is, however, a later realistic drawing by the Swedish engraver and miniaturist Anton Ulrik Berndes (1757-1844), Gustav Lundberg’s former pupil, that helped secure the identification (Fig. 2).9 Berndes signed his sketch with his initials

and dated it 15 July 1793, the day Badin sat for him. In this intimate portrayal, we are confronted with a mature, older, well-dressed Badin, now a celebrated citizen of Stockholm, who became a member of the Freemasons and was respected as an accomplished intellectual.10

The present portrait, is an extended bust-length portrait of Badin, which portrays him at age twenty-six, discreetly coiffed and dressed in attire. His kid leather cap with silver embroidery and silver tassel is placed on a ledge to his right, upon which he casually rests his right hand. The left arm, cut at the wrist cuff, is placed upon his hip. The elegant yellow and blue costume with large silver buttons, white collar, and white lace chemise echo contemporary uniforms worn by the Swedish militia. A rare work written by the officer Carl Gustav Roos, Recueil des Uniformes de l’Armée Swedoise (probably Stockholm, 1783), illustrates the military attire of generals, infantry, and officers during Gustav III’s reign. This hand-coloured folio in Roos’ book of an aide-de-camp compares with Badin’s attire; instead of the dominant blue and yellow, the preferred martial colours, the black African wears a yellow silk or velvet jacket with black trim over a blue vest edged with silver (Fig. 3). Badin’s attire heightens his elevated status and position at the Swedish court, see also for instance the formal costumes preserved at the Swedish Royal Livruskammaren, object no. 31869, 19227 & 31870. (Fig. 3a & b) He is not portrayed as just a ‘Moo-

Fig. 2 Anton Ulrik Berndes, Portrait Drawing of Badin as a Freemason, detail with Badin’s head, Stockholm, 15 July 1793. Credit: Alamy Ltd, UK

rish’ chamber servant or ‘black page’ (kammermohr We are confronted with a singular portrayal in which the sitter is shown with confidence and self-assurance. Badin gazes at the viewer with pride, a black African who had attained upward mobility in his social context and milieu.

Queen Louisa commissioned Badin’s portrait to mark a specific event and a significant turning point in his life when she appointed her foster son her secretary in 1776; this year, inscribed on the lower right reverse of the canvas (Fig. 4).12 After this promotion, Badin became the queen’s closest confidante and companion, upon whom she would implicitly rely and trust more than her children.

Portraits, particularly this one of her favourite Badin, mat tered to Louisa. The queen’s appreciation of portraiture is well documented, developed since her youth at the Prus sian court in Berlin, where the Frenchman Antoine Pesne (1683-1757) served as the leading court portraitist to her father, the King of Prussia, Frederick Wilhelm I (16881740) and her elder brother Frederick II (1712-1786; better known as Frederick the Great).13 Louisa Ulrika was born in Berlin in 1720, the tenth child of Friedrich Wil helm I and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hannover. Raised at the Prussian court, the young princess received a solid education from French Huguenot expatriates. She was fluent in French and knowledgeable in music, theatre, literature, and the sciences, educated as an enlightened princess, having mixed at the Berlin court with leading international artists, Italian opera singers, and celebrated French philosophers, such as Voltaire, a protégé brother Frederick II, and with whom she corresponded.

Fig. 3 Carl Gustav Roos, Recueil des Uniformes de l’Armée Swedoise (probably Stockholm, 1783), 1783-1789, fol. 53. Credit: Public Domain Fig. 4 Reverse of Badin’s portrait, Credit: Art & Research Photography, Amsterdam Fig. 3a A jacket and a vest worn at the Swedish court, c. 1770-1780, collection Royal Livrustkammaren, Stocholm (no. 19227_LRK & 31870_LRK) Fig. 3b A formal costume of the Swedish court, c. 1770-1790, collection Royal Livrustkammaren, Stocholm (no. 31869_LRK) Credit: Livrustkammaren/SHM

As queen, Louisa imaged herself at the Swedish court and amongst Stockholm’s aristocratic and intellectual society as an enlightened ruler and dynamic patron of the arts, science, and letters. She established the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters (Kongl. Swenska Witterhets Academien) in 1753, informally known as the ‘Queen’s Academy’.15 She promoted Swedish painters and encouraged the development of theatre by reconstructing a theatre at Drottningholm Palace, where plays were performed in French. Above all, she was also a passionate, erudite art collector. Louisa Ulrika avidly collected portraits of rulers and learned scientists and commissioned images of her court ladies for a “Gallery of Beauties”, curating the hanging of these diverse portrayals in specific rooms and galleries at Drottningholm. In one new room, the Green Room, added during her reign, she displayed her Prussian royal family and siblings to remind visitors of her illustrious origins and pedigree.16 Louisa encouraged painters to come and study her Drottningholm artworks and paintings. Therefore, her input in this explicitly commissioned portrait of Badin as her new royal secretary cannot be underestimated.

Queen Louisa likely ordered a preliminary pastel study of Badin by her favourite painter, Gustav Lundberg, which must be considered lost. Because of the delicate nature and surfaces of pastels, sensitive to light, moisture, and touch, and which had to be protected by glass, copies in oil were invariably made from the onset. She immediately had this lost pastel replicated in oil, attributed here to Jakob Björk, a Swedish portrait painter and copyist active for twenty-four years in Lundberg’s workshop from 1750 to 1774. Björk worked primarily executing oil copies of Lundberg’s pastels for numerous royal and aristocratic clients, among them Queen Louisa and her favourite minister, Count Carl Gustav Tessin (1695-1770), and he continued to do so after leaving Lundberg’s atelier.17 As Laine and

Brown stressed, replicas of Lundberg’s portraits, both in oil and pastel, circulated in large numbers outside his studio.18

As a copyist, Björk’s style relied upon Lundberg’s originals, in which sitters are positioned, bust-length, close to the foreground plane, with neutral brownish-green backgrounds. The high rank and status of the sitters are highlighted by their poses, elegant costumes, accessories, and jewels. In his oil copies, Björk faithfully reproduced Lundberg’s compositions, as evidenced in the painting of Count Anders Rudolf du Rietz (1720-1792), recently seen on the art market (Fig. 5b).19 Dressed in a blue and yellow Swedish uniform, underneath which his half-armour is visible, Du Rietz prominently wears the Swedish Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword on his left breast; his portrayal reflects the pride of a career officer. When it is compared with the pastel of the Count Claes Julius Ekeblad (1742-1808) by Lundberg (Fig. 5a), it becomes clear that Björk is the painter of the oil painting depicting Badin. Badin’s portrayal imparts a similar psychological characterisation, dignity, and self-esteem. Queen Louisa decided which clothes Badin should wear here, as she did in Lundberg’s 1775 pastel of Badin (see below), probably responsible for the cut and design of both costumes, ever conscious as queen of the visual impact of clothes and dress accessories.20 She equally chose the background setting with Lundberg, which Björk has repeated: a garden with billowy trees that frames Badin, representing her park at Drottningholm palace, where her foster son grew up and lived with the royal family. Diplomats and eyewitnesses at the Swedish court recount in their diaries and travelogues that Badin was short and somewhat stout. 21 Badin is fashioned here as the elegant and handsome courtier he had become while growing up in Queen Louisa’s intimate surroundings.22

Fig. 5b Jakob Björk (after Gustav Lundberg), Portrait of Count and Lieutenant-General Anders Rudolf du Rietz, c. 1775-1777, oil on canvas, 67 x 52 cm. Present whereabouts unknown. Credit: Public Domain Fig. 5a Gustav Lundberg, Portrait of Count Claes Julius Ekeblad, Major General, Governor, and Lord Chamberlain, after 1775, pastel on paper. Nordic Museum, Stockholm (inv. no. NM.0239302)

Fig. 6 Gustav Lundberg, Portrait of Badin playing chess, 1775, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, pastel on paper, 74 x 57 cm, inv. no. NMGrh 1455. Credit: Public Domain

White Knight, Black Bishop, Checkmate: Badin, Master of Chess

One year prior, the Swedish queen commissioned Badin’s most memorable portrait, which hangs almost 250 years later, in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (Fig. 6).23 Louisa arranged for Gustav Lundberg to paint it in a single day on 4 July 1775, an artistic contest, which the pastelist met with aplomb, expertise, and refined technique. The precise details of the queen’s challenge and why her court painter had to execute this pastel quickly are unknown.

Badin is dressed in a fantastic costume with pigeon blue ribbon trimmings, also draped around his neck, thickly encrusted with rock crystal stones, as is the edge of his hat. Opulent white ostrich feathers enhance his attire and adorn his hat; some dyed red and blue. A gold leather case (quiver) filled with arrows is visible above his left shoulder. Queen Louisa deliberately chose Badin’s clothes. This scene mimics a theatrical production packed with multilayered significance, underscored by Badin’s tongue-in-cheek look, pose, and the red and white chess board on a table before him.24 As with the slightly later 1776 portrait under scrutiny here, Lundberg has positioned Badin very close to the foreground. The brownish-green background, typical of Lundberg’s style, is heightened with light blue in the middle, spotlighting Badin. this challenging game, a metaphor for the well-educated, courtly gentleman Badin had become by 1775. That same year, the renowned Swedish painter Alexandre Roslin (1718-1793), who had lived

abroad in Bayreuth, Parma, and Paris for his entire life, visited Stockholm after being elected a member of the Swedish Academy of the Arts. During his sojourn in 1774-1775, he took many portraits of the Swedish royal family, including this portrayal of Queen Louisa as the elderly Dowager Queen, which she must have ordered simultaneously with Lundberg’s pastel of Badin, her portrayal almost identical in size (Fig. 7).27 In keeping with Gustav Lundberg’s style of portraiture, Roslin depicts Louisa in lavish attire, richly adorned with pearls and diamonds. As in Lundberg’s pastels, she is seen against a neutral greyish-green background. Louisa earmarked Roslin’s portrait for her collection at Drottningholm.

Badin’s portrait, with its ornate neo-classical Gustavian frame, received a place of honour in the queen’s apartment elsewhere at Fredrikshov,28 her winter palace in Stockholm, displayed in her blue study or cabinet d’étude, located in a wing she added there in 1772-1774 now destroyed, designed by her architect, Carl Frederik Adelcrantz.29 She carefully selected the furnishings in this small room, contrasting Asian and European objets d’art. The curtains and the upholstery of the gilded seats were blue taffeta with gold braiding. The Swedish Rococo-style desk with a bookshelf or etagère by the master cabinetmaker Nils Dahlin (active in Stockholm, 1761-1787), after French models, were inlaid with imported Chinoiserie black and gold lacquer panels, outfitted with burnished gilt Ormulu fittings. Stamped with the queen’s initials and dated 1771, this site-specific furniture has survived.30 A bronze French clock

Fig. 7 Alexandre Roslin, Portrait of the Dowager Queen Louisa Ulrika, 1775, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, oil on canvas, 74 x 58 cm, inv. no. NMDrh 35. Signed and dated: 1775. Credit: Public Domain Fig. 8 Olaf Fridsberg, Portraits of Illustrious Men, with Short Biographies of Their Lives, written by Mme la Comtesse de Tessin, 1760s, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, watercolour on paper, 23 x 19 x 5.5 cm, inv. no. NMH 145/1960. Credit: Public Domain

with the Allegory of Learning (a woman reading a book) crowned Dahlin’s bookshelf. Other items included export wares: a Japanese lacquer cabinet, four grey and gold potpourri jars, and a fire screen made with painted Indian paper. On the walls, Queen Louisa elected to juxtapose her ‘exotic’ black son - dressed in the matching blue of her study - with a white porcelain bust of the Russian Empress, Catherine the Great (1729-1796), a female ruler she admired. It was an intentional play with black and white. As the queen’s appointed secretary after 1776, Badin was quite familiar with this room and its contents, having unique access to this space and the key to her private files.

To better visualise Queen Louisa’s blue étude, illustrated here is a small watercolour depicting Countess Louisa Ulrika (Ulla) Sparre in a similar cabinet at her country estate in Åkerö (Fig. 8).31

The wife of Count Carl Gustav Tessin, Queen Louisa’s minster and a passionate art collector,32 Countess Sparre, in her collecting craze, densely furnished her study, much like the blue étude at Fredrikshov. This tiny space, with the countess portrayed at her desk, is crammed with collectables where Asia and Europe intersect. This study was her Kunstkammer (an art chamber) in which naturalia, such as coral, were displayed alongside exotica, such as Asian export wares. Books, paintings, small-scale bronze sculptures, a gilt bronze Rococo clock, a Chinese Imari baluster jar with a cover (Kangxi period, 1622-1722), and a Chinese red and gold lacquer cabinet compete for attention. Above Countess Louisa’s desk is a portrait of an unidentified female painter holding a painter’s palette, possibly by the Venetian Rococo pastelist Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757).33

On the upper wall in the background is Gustav Lundberg’s pastel portrait of her husband, Count Tessin, which can be seen in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm today.34

African Precedents

In their exhaustive monograph on Gustav Lundberg’s career as painter and pastelist, Laine and Brown looked closely at Queen Louisa’s commissioned pastel of Badin, detailing the artistic sources, established iconographies and stereotypes Lundberg incorporated here.35 The ostrich feathers and gold quiver with arrows echo earlier depictions of so-called ‘moors’, or better, Africans, prevalent in manuscript illuminations, artworks, prints and the decorative arts since the late Middle Ages. This Allegory of Africa, one of the world’s four continents, executed in 1709 by Francesco Trevisani (1656-1746) or his workshop in Rome, encapsulates these wide-spread pictorial models (Fig. 9).36 The African continent is symbolised by an elephant mounted by a half-clad, bejewelled black lady with a parasol, personifying Africa.

In keeping with his eccentric dress and theatrical presentation, Badin’s hair is unruly and uncoiffed, his face unshaven, his black coat reflecting the colour of his black skin underneath. The deliberate reference to ‘African’ elements underscores Badin is not dressed in conventional court attire but wears a stage costume, perhaps one worn during his brief period as an actor and ballet dancer in plays and masquerades held at the French Theatre in Bollhuset in Stockholm between 1769-1771.37 Badin also performed in the Royal Palace, playing the lead as an African ‘savage’ in Pierre de Marivaux’s Arlequin Sauvage. A rare watercolour of an African ballet dancer by LouisRené Boquet (1717-1814), a costume designer for the Paris Opera, may well reflect the costume worn by Badin in 1770 (Fig. 10).38 During this theatrical phase of his life, Badin collaborated with the Swedish court poet, entertainer and songwriter Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795), with whom Badin composed

Fig. 9 Francesco Trevisani and studio, Allegory of Africa, 1709, oil on canvas, 74.5 x 61 cm, Amsterdam, Zebregs and Röell Fine Arts & Antiques. Fig. 10 Louis-René Boquet, Costume Design for an African Ballet Character, Amsterdam, Zebregs&Röell Fine Arts & Antiques, pen, ink and watercolour on paper, 25.2 x 18.7 cm.

songs and poems, even appearing in Bellman’s divertissement, Carneval de Venise, staged for the Dowager Queen Louisa, by order of her son King Gustav III in 1776. The production, which recreated Venice with St. Mark’s Square, and the Rialto bridge, took place in the king’s cabinet (Cabinet du Roi) with Badin acting as the masked ‘blackamoor’ in Venetian carnival costume.39

Since her childhood at the Prussian court, Queen Louisa was interested in the Africans she had encountered there and, subsequently, at her brother Frederick the Great’s court, where black men were engaged as musicians and soldiers. The life of one man, especially, fascinated her. Anton Wilhelm Amo (c. 1703-c. 1759) from Ghana, protected by Louisa’s elder sister, Philippine Charlotte of Prussia (1716-1801), Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was encouraged to study, receiving his doctorate in Wittenberg in 1734. Amo lectured at the Halle and Wittenberg universities and wrote a now-lost treatise on the rights of black Africans in Europe. Much like Badin’s story, another eighteenth-century narrative which fascinated European courts was the remarkable career of the African courtier and royal tutor Angelo Soliman (Mmadi Make, c. 1722-1796) at the Habsburg imperial court in Vienna. Brought as a slave child to Europe, he achieved prominence in Viennese elite society, highly respected as a cultured man in intellectual circles, joining the Freemason Lodge, ‘True Concord’ (Zur Wahren Eintracht) in 1783, as Badin had in Stockholm

in 1773.40 During her reign, Queen Louisa cultivated relations with men of letters, scientists and philosophers who devoted themselves to studying Africans, such as Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759), who once resided at Frederick II’s court in Berlin.

The arrival of Mapondé, an enslaved five-year-old African boy with albinism from Angola in Paris in January 1743, created a sensation because of his genetic condition and rare skin colour. Maupertuis, who closely studied Mapondé, was so fascinated by the enigma that a ‘white’ child could be born of black parents he was inspired to write and publish a treatise, La Dissertation Physique à l’occasion du Nègre Blanc (Leiden, 1744).41 News reached the Swedish queen’s minister, Count Carl Gustaf Tessin, the former ambassador to France, who managed to obtain this outstanding, insightful portrait by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (c. 1715-1783), taken the year Mapondé arrived, which today is in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (Fig. 11)42 Tessin gifted this pastel to Queen Louisa, who gave it a place of prominence at her palace in Drottningholm. Perroneau showcases the young Mapondé as a dignified, almost majestic sitter, three-quarters in length, facing to the left. The viewer is nevertheless confronted with a strange ‘curiosity’ - a white-skinned black African boy with expressive blue eyes and white hair dressed in an exotic red silk gown. His ceremonial costume is complimented by his long grey cape and red cap in his right hand, both lined with grey fur, recalling Turkish caftans. Mapondé is explicitly dressed as an oriental Ottoman to ref-

Fig. 11 Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, Portrait of the Albino Child Mapondé, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, 1743, pastel on paper, 75 x 56 cm, inv. no. NMB 1674. Credit: Public Domain Fig. 12 Jean Eric Rehn, Drawing of the young Badin dressed as a jester playing the violin, c. 1760, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, pen and ink on paper, 19.6 x 15 cm, inv. no. NMH 444/1995. Inscribed on the reverse: “Badin négre de la reine Louise Ulrique de Suede, dessiné 1757”. Credit: Public Domain

erence his ‘otherness’. When commissioning Gustav Lundberg’s pastel of Badin, her ‘wild African boy tamed by court society and its mores’, Queen Louisa looked for inspiration to Perroneau’s earlier, realistic portrayal of Mapondé, which had been in her collection for decades. Mapondé’s portrait and story are images and narratives Badin would have seen and heard at Drottningholm Palace.

Before 1775: Educating the Queen’s Son

Much ink has been spilt about Badin’s representation in Lundberg’s pastel as the ‘exotic other’, the civilised boy, playing chess in the context of the white Swedish court. Lundberg’s portrayal encapsulates Badin’s biography and life up to 1775, reflecting the close ties and friendship Queen Louisa cultivated with her foster son, whom she liberally educated, following the edicts of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), who in 1762 published his Émilie (or On Education). Rousseau’s premise was small children should be free of formal education, advocating an upbringing without constraints.

Louisa fashioned herself as an enlightened monarch, and when granting Badin his freedom, she allowed him to be raised as a human scientific experiment in keeping with Rousseau’s precepts. Spirited and ill-behaved, Badin could roam free in all the royal palaces he resided in, never reprimanded nor scolded. He could say what he wished and treat his royal siblings as he liked. He often called his adopted broth-

er, the crown prince and future king, Gustav III, a ‘scoundrel’. Queen Louisa thought him witty and verbal. Contemporaries, visitors, and courtiers alike were appalled at the results of her unconventional parenting methods. The Swedish Chancellor, Count Fredrik Sparre, harshly criticised Badin in handwritten notes dated 1763, having himself suffered from the boy’s rudeness: “It’s [Badin’s] disposition is, like that of all Morians [Swedish for ‘moor’ or black African], very quick, which can be so much less strange that in his upbringing, the rule must be followed to let him do, most of the time, what he wants, at least never let him be nagged with any body language.”

Sparre found Badin’s manners and speech blunt and gross, disapproving he was allowed to run in and out of rooms, climb on the royal thrones, and hang around during meals between the king’s and queen’s chairs. On many occasions, Badin would race around the table, take food from the plates and cause guests to laugh.43 Once, he popped out of a large baked pie. The queen’s lack of discipline transformed the young Badin into a court jester. A little-known pen and ink drawing of Badin standing on a podium with a jester’s cap, playing the violin, by the queen’s court architect, Jean-Eric Rehn (1717-1793), gives us a glimpse of his early life at court as a form of entertainment. (Fig. 12)44 Another sketch by Rehn gives an even better insight into life at Drottningholm Palace in the queen’s quarters, capturing a moment in time at Queen Louisa’s court (Fig. 13).45 The French sculptor Pierre Hubert l’Archevêque (1721-1778) shapes her portrait bust in clay to the far right.46 Behind, to the left, by the window, she stands next to her official reader, the Swiss Jean François Beylon (1724-1779), whoreads her a text, without doubt in French while a grinning, mischievous Badin peeks from behind the sculptor’s legs. Rehn has chosen to caricature Badin as short, rotund with pronounced, exaggerated African features.47

The Rousseau experiment inevitably failed as Badin grew older. Queen Louisa realised her undisciplined young teenager needed education. In preparation for his baptism, she appointed Nathanaël Thenstedt (1731-1808), a Swedish preacher, to instruct him in Christian doctrine, reading and writing, and other subjects.48 Thenstedt tutored Badin from 1763 to 1768; his baptism was celebrated in the chapel of Drottningholm Palace on 11 December 1768. Badin became a gifted polyglot, having mastered Latin, German, French, and Swedish, fluent in the latter two, as his diary confirms. Badin was well-read and appreciated books and, as an adult, amassed a library which counted eight hundred volumes, sold at auction after he died in 1822.49 His high status at Queen Louisa’s court granted him multiple social advantages, as in the 1760s when he

Fig. 13 Jean Eric Rehn, Drawing of the young Badin, Queen Louisa Ulrika, Pierre Hubert l’Archevêque and François Beylon at Drottningholm Palace, c. 1760, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, pen and ink on paper, 36.8 x 26.5 cm, inv. no. NMH 543/1995. Credit: Public Domain

met at royal soirées and dinners the Swedish philosopher and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a harsh critic of slavery and the first Swede to condemn slavery.50 As his diary reveals, Badin’s discourses with Swedenborg transformed his views regarding faith and spirituality.51 After his baptism, Badin refashioned himself from a court jester to a pious, devoted Christian, becoming Queen Louisa’s most trusted secretary, with her 1776 portrait by Jakob Björk marking this momentous transition in Badin’s life.52

A Black Swedish Courtier in Prussia

Three years after his baptism, Badin travelled to Prussia, experiencing the country where his patroness grew up. In 1771, after her husband, King Adolf Frederick, died, Queen Louisa was invited by her elder brother, Frederick II, to spend time at his court.53 She arrived on 3 December with an entourage of 82 people, including Badin.54 This trip abroad marked a turning point for him as an educated black courtier. He resided in Berlin for almost a year, becoming the ‘darling’ (joujou) of Prussian royal society because of his eloquence and wit; his presence was coveted everywhere, not just because of his colour. He was invited daily to visit Frederick’s queen, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern (1715-1797) and the homes of other princesses and court ladies, as Queen Louisa duly reported to her son, Gustav III, in Stockholm.

“As in Stockholm, Badin is everyone’s plaything [joujou] here. The Queen and the Princesses order him to visit them, and he is invited every day, evening, and dinner in town.”55

Badin and Queen Louisa partook in a full social agenda of concerts, entertainments, operas, dinners, and sightseeing, including a special tour of Frederick II’s Rococo palace of San Souci in Potsdam, where they visited the terraced gardens, park, and the superb art collections of French paintings, among them, works by Jean-Baptiste Pater and Antoine Watteau.56 Badin’s exposure to the arts, culture, music, theatre, and intellectual circles cultivated by Frederick and the Prussian royal family left an indelible mark on him, with Badin wishing to remain in Berlin to study astronomy.57 However, his complex relationship with Queen Louisa influenced his return to Stockholm a year later. After 1771, Badin proved indispensable to the queen because of his loyalty, discretion, and knowledge of the inner workings of the Swedish court, becoming the ears and eyes of the queen and her son, King Gustav III.58 His devotion and loyalty were unconditional, to the extent that he aided in burning Queen Louisa’s papers - upon her directives - after she died.59

More Transitions

Badin’s career at the Swedish court continued to thrive after the loss of his adopted mother. King Gustav III respected his adopted brother’s talents and capabilities, appointing him the assessor of two royal estates in Svartsjö.60 A receipt for the rental of a country house and garden in October 1782 signed by Badin has survived, marking his new career as a royal estate manager and officer with judiciary powers (Fig. 14).61 He remained in Gustav’s service until the king’s assassination in 1792.

Badin took the initiative and oversaw the commission in 1794 of a commemorative silver medal to honour his dead brother executed by Carl Gustav Fehrman (1746-1798),62 which depicts the bust of the late king on a plinth with a naked, winged old man with an hour clock; the personification of Time, extending his hand towards the dead monarch (Fig. 15).63 Scattered on the ground and on the plinth - the letter G for Gustav inserted in a six-sided star - are masonic symbols, including a compass and a square, referencing the late king’s membership. Afterwards, Badin retired from court life, purchasing two farms in Uppland, where he kept his extensive library, to live the life of a country gentleman.

Badin also remained connected to the household of Queen Louisa’s unmarried daughter, Princess Sophia Albertina (1753-1829), a foster sister he had been particularly close to since his arrival at the Swedish royal court in 1758. This princess watched over Badin’s welfare, and after his first marriage to a white Swedish merchant’s daughter, Elisabeth Svart, in late 1782,64 she granted him a lifetime annuity. A surviving letter confirms her friendship, support and a gift of money (Fig. 16).

‘Here, my good friend Badien [sic; Badin], a gift for your little pleasure; I hope your health is better than last year. You see that I do not forget my absent friends. Sophie Albertine’.65

This princess inherited outstanding artworks and portraits from her mother’s diverse collections after 1782; one was Jakob Björk’s masterful portrayal of Badin as the queen’s royal secretary. Owning this portrait was a personal choice. Sophia’s private residence, Arvfursten Palats in Stockholm, was remodelled by Erik Palmstedt between 1793 and 1794; Louis Masreliez (1748–1810) designed the interior salons in a neoclassical Gustavian style. In the Sällskapsrummet, or the drawing room, Princess Sophia and her courtiers spent hours conversing and embroidering. Most likely, Badin’s 1776 portrait once hung in this representative room. In 1829, the same portrait was recorded in her post-mor-

Fig. 14 Rental contract signed by Badin, Stockholm, 21 October 1782, Uppsala, Uppsala University Library, Erik Wallers Autografsamling, ink on paper, 320 x 200 mm, shelfmark: Waller Ms se-00156.

tem inventory on fol. 110, entry 79 as ‘Portrait de Mr Badin’, appraised for 20 Swedish riksdaler.66 Princess Sophia’s residence is the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs today. Her former Arbetsrummet (study), which initially served as her bedroom and later as her waiting room, contains furnishings dating to her residency still in situ.

Badin’s Legacy

In November 2023, Crown Princess Victoria attended the unveiling of a headstone for Gustav Badin at the Katarina Cemetery on Södermalm in Stockholm, where fellow Freemasons had buried him on March 18, 1822. All traces of Badin’s original grave have since been lost. The National Organisation of Afro-Swedes took the initiative to honour Badin, and they erected this fitting memorial for a former enslaved African who carved out a brilliant career at the Swedish court, refashioning himself as a jester, butler, ballet dancer, actor, erstwhile poet, secretary, and official royal inspector. Badin loved culture, the arts, music and his books. As a Freemason and a person of African descent deeply concerned with his black identity, impacted by the Age of Enlightenment philosophers and intellectuals whose paths he crossed in Sweden and Prussia, Badin believed in social reform, and like others in his court circles and secret societies advocated against racial discrimination in eighteenth-century Sweden.

Jakob Björk’s portrait of Fredrik Adolf Ludvig Gustav Albrecht Badin, née Couschi, is a unique testimony of his life and career at Queen Louisa Ulrika’s court, reflecting his amazing transition from a court entertainer and jester to a trustworthy royal secretary and land assessor. It is a remarkable masterpiece and portrayal of a black Afro-Carribean-Swede to have been rediscovered.

Credit: Public Domain

282, unfoliated (no date, no location).

Credit: Public Domain

Fig. 15 Garl Gustav Fehrman, Commemorative Medal of King Gustav III commissioned by Badin, 1794, Uppsala, Gustavianum, Uppsala Univeristy Coin Cabinet (Myntkabinett), 1794, silver, diameter: 50.94 mm. Fig. 16 Note written by Princess Sophia Albertina to Badin with a gift of money, Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Ericsbergsarkivet, Autografsamlingen, Sverige, Sofia Albertina, vol.

I am grateful to Merit Laine, who generously shared archival sources and helped guide me through the holdings of the Riksarkivet in Stockholm. Marie-Louise von Plessen and Franz Pichorner were just as helpful and forthcoming with information. Ragnar Hedlund at the Uppsala Univeristy Coin Cabinet helped clarify queries regarding the 1794 commission of a medal of King Gustav III in his collection. I thank Kate Lowe and Hugo Miguel Crespo for reading earlier drafts of this essay.

1 Laine and Moberg, 2015, pp. 209-212; Laine and Brown, 2006, pp. 226-233 and p. 245. Consult as well, Serge Roche, Cadres français et étrangers du XVe siècle au XVIIIe siècle: Allemagne, Angleterre, Espagne, France, Italie, Pays-Bas, Paris, E. Bignou, 1931; Bruno Pons, ‘Les cadres français du XVIII siècle et leurs ornaments’, in: Revue de l’Art, 76, 1987, pp. 41-50

2 Badin’s autograph diary (Dagbook), written in Swedish, is interspersed with commentaries in French. Located in Uppsala, Uppsala University Library, ink on paper, 37 pages, 16 x 10.5 cm, Shelfmark: X 252 a. Acquired in 1916 as a donation given by the French professor Oscar Quensels. Consult online: https://www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/view.jsf?pid=alvinrecord%3A84300&dswid=7423 (accessed 15 December 2023).

Cf. Pred, 2004, p. 8, cites a transcribed manuscript of Badin’s life in the archive of the Par Bricole Bacchanalian Society in Stockholm (inv. DIj). More recently, Basir, 2015. Badin wrote entries about spiritual love, poems on the beauty of flowers and friendship.

3 This island was purchased by the Danish West India Company from Louis XV, King of France, for 750,000 livres in 1733. St. Croix (together with St. Thomas) were sold by Denmark to the United States in 1916. Badin is thought to have been born either in West Africa or St. Croix. As an adult, Badin remembered seeing his family’s hut burn but was unable to say precisely where he was born.

4 Wikström, 1971, pp. 272-314; Danielsson, 2021, p. 47

5 Östlund, 2017, pp. 71-91. Badin’s story was recounted in later novels after he died in 1822. For instance, Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe, Der Mohr oder das Haus Holstein-Gottorp in Schweden. Aus dem Schwedischen, Berlin, Morin, 7 vols., 1842-1844, whose unreliable accounts of Badin at the Swedish court racially stereotyped him as a wild, untamed African savage. Cf. Lowe, 2005, pp. 17-46, especially p. 18, for the question of black Africans who, if they conformed to norms of dress and behaviour while assimilating European cultural life, were able to neutralise stereotypes of black Africans as “savages”, projecting themselves as accepted, “honorary” Europeans who happened to have black skin. This is precisely the case of Badin, who grew up in the intimate circles of the Swedish royal family to become a respected citizen of Stockholm and accepted in elite circles.

6 This name derives from the French badiner, meaning to joke or banter; badinage means witty remarks. In French badin is a joker, fool or pranskter.

7 In Swedish she was called Lovisa Ulrike. In German, Luise Ulrike. She signed her letters, Ulrike. I have opted for the English spelling of Louisa Ulrika.

8 Drottningholm was built by King Adolf Fredrik’s great aunt, Queen Hedvig Eleonora, designed by the architects Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and his son. In 1744, soon after she arrived in Sweden, ownership was transferred to Princess Louisa Ulrika. It became her favourite and primary residence, where she housed her comprehensive collections of paintings, Old Master drawings, antiquities, coins, medals, books, historical documents, and natural history specimens. Drottningholm remained the focus of Louisa’s intense patronage for thirty years, her energies invested in laying out its gardens, outfitting its interiors and adding buildings, including a Chinese pavilion. See Laine, 1998, pp. 493-503.

9 This drawing is discussed and illustrated in Östlund, 2017, fig. 4.4 without mention of its present location. According to Östlund, Berndes added a poem (on the reverse?) to Badin’s image: “Born among slaves he wandered among them; till the approach of light drove away darkness: and then it was

thattransported its luster and warmth, Adolf Ludwig Gustaf Fredrik Albert Badin Cou[s]chi, wished to die as one truly free”.

10 Pred, 2004, p. 77. Through his court connections, Badin joined several secret societies in Stockholm, such as Per Bricole, where he became the second-highest ranking fellow and the Freemasons in 1773, which included his royal foster brothers King Gustav III and Princes Karl and Fredrik Adolph. He actively engaged in their philanthropic projects, donating to these fraternities. Cf. Par Bricoles Gustavianska Period.

Personalhistoriska Anteckningar till den Äldsta Matrikeln, Stockholm, Hasse W. Tullbergs Förlag, 1903, p. 86, no. 704: “Badin, Adolph Ludwig”.

11 For black pages at Ancien Régime German courts consult Honeck, Klimke, and Kuhlmann, 2013, p. 10, addressing the question of visibility and mobility of black servants in German aristocratic elite circles; some black people, like Badin, even attaining successful court careers in Central Europe.

12 Before this, Badin had been the queen’s footman and butler.

13 A 1744 portrait of Louisa Ulrika as Princess of Prussia painted by Pesne at the time of her marriage in Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. 53.1. Consult online: https://recherche.smb.museum/ detail/870040/luise-ulrike-prinzessin-von-preußen-17201782?language=de&question=Antoine+Pesne&limit=15&sor t=relevance&controls=none&collectionKey=GG*&objIdx=7 (accessed 15 December 2023).

14 Louisa Ulrika’s education and upbringing and that of her siblings at the Prussian court are outlined in Oster, 2007. Louisa’s eldest sister, Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, became an active patron of the arts, an accomplished musician, composer, painter, poet and playwright. She engaged in significant building projects while transforming her lavish court at Bayreuth into the intellectual centre of Central Europe. See also Rivière, 2003, pp. 41-62.

15 Dermineur and Svante, 2016, pp. 84-96; Dermineur 2015.

16 Dermineur, 2017, p. 71.

17 Levertin, 1902; Laine and Brown, 2006, pp. 199-201.

18 Laine and Brown, 2006, p. 245.

19 Present whereabouts unknown. Oil on canvas (after a pastel), 67 x 52 cm.

20 See Dermineur, 2017, p. 10, for Louisa’s interest in the Prussian army, impacted by her father, Frederick Wilhelm I and the multiple uniforms he wore, who self-fashioned himself as an absolute army officer, shunning court costume and p. 110 for the fabrics, lace and pearls Louisa ordered from Paris and Berlin for her ceremonial clothes made for her coronation in 1751. This splendid silver dress with embroidered gold crowns she designed still survives in Stockholm in the Royal Armoury (National Historical Museums, SHM, Livrustkammaren). Consult online: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Lovisa_Ulrika_av_Sveriges_kröningsklänning_från_1751_-_ Livrustkammaren_-_13124.tif (accessed 15 December 2023).

21 The pentimenti around the top of Badin’s head are visible in the X-rays taken by Art & Research Photography in Amsterdam in January 2024. Also slight changes in the nose and lips are visible, which points towards Björk having difficulty in copying a portrait of a man with non-European features.

22 In December 1763, the Swedish Royal Chancellor Count Fredrik Sparre pejoratively observed in his diary that Badin was short: “[…] as a little dwarf, although not unpretty”. Cf. Pred, 2004, p. 215, n. 52.

23 Pastel on paper, 74 x 57 cm, inv. no. NMGrh 1455. For payment made by Queen Louisa to Lundberg for Badin’s pastel, see the published dissertation by Laine, 1998, p. 62, who cites the queen’s account books in which this commission appears.

24 An identical red and white chessboard made of gold-plated leather, perhaps the same one depicted in this portrait, with Queen Louisa’s monogram, was recently purchased in 2017 by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Designed by the queen’s bookbinder, Christopher Schneidler (1721-1787), it is dated 1771-1782. See Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv. no. NMK 111a/2017. Consult online: https://collection.nationalmuseum. se/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=direct/1/ResultListView/result. t1.collection_

Primary Sources

Stockholm, Riksarkivet, Stafundsarkivet, vol. 29: Relations des évènements en Suède, les années 1771 et 1772, faite par le maréchal

de la cour Mr S. A. Piper à la Reine Louise Ulrique de Suède

Stockholkm, Riksarkivet, Kungliga archiv, Bouppteckningshandlingar, Lovisa Ulrika, vol. 270 (16 September 1782)

Stockholkm, Riksarkivet, Kungliga archiv, Bouppteckningshandlingar, Stockkolm, Riksarkivet, Princessan Sofia Albertina, K 387

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Oscar Levertin, Gustaf Lundberg. En Studie, Stockholm, Aktiebolaget Ljus, 1902

K.J.P. Lowe, ‘Visual representations of an elite: African ambassadors and rulers in Renaissance Europe’, Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe, edited by Joaneath Spicer, Baltimore, Walters Museum of Art, 2012, pp. 98-115

K.J.P. Lowe, ‘The stereotyping of black Africans in Renaissance Europe’, in: Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, edited by T. F. Earle and K. J. P. Lowe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005, pp. 17-46

Edvard Matz, ‘Badin – ett experiment i fri uppfostran’, in: Populär Historia, 15 March 2001: https://popularhistoria.se/sverigeshistoria/1700-talet/badin-ett-experiment-i-fri-uppfostran (accessed 15 December 2023)

Joachim Östlund, ‘Playing the White Knight. Badin, Chess, and Black Self-fashioning in Eighteenth-century Sweden,’ in: Migrating the Black Body: The African Diaspora and Visual Culture, edited by Leigh Raiford and Heike RaphaelHernández, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017, pp. 71-91

Uwe A. Oster, Wilhelmine von Bayreuth. Das Leben der Schwester Friedrichs des Großen, Munich, Piper Verlag, 2007

Marc Serge Rivière, ‘‘Divine Ulrique’: Voltaire and Louisa Ulrica, Princess of Prussia and Queen of Sweden (1751-1771)’, Irish Journal of French Studies, 3, 2003, pp. 41-62

Vincent Roy-Di Piazza, ‘Enslaved by African angels: Swedenborg on African superiority, evangelization, and slavery’, Intellectual History Review, 33, April 2023, pp. 1-31

Henrik Schück, Gustav III:s och Lovisa Ulrikas brevväxling, Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner, vol. 2, 1919

Lars Wikström, ‘Fredrik Adolph Ludvig Gustaf Albrecht BadinCouschi: Ett Säll-samt Levnadsöde’, in: Släkt och Hävd, 1, April 1971, pp. 272-314

About the author

Dr. Annemarie Jordan Gschwend is a Senior Research Scholar and Curator associated with the Centro de Humanidades (CHAM) in Zurich, Switzerland and Lisbon, Portugal since 2010. Jordan’s areas of specialisation include Kunstkammers and menageries at the Renaissance courts in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. She is the author of numerous publications: articles, exhibition catalogue essays and books, including, The Story of Süleyman. Celebrity Elephants and other Exotica in Renaissance Portugal (Zurich-Philadelphia, 2010). With Kate Lowe, Jordan co-edited the award-winning book The Global City. On the streets of Renaissance Lisbon (Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2015).

Gustave Vanaise (1854-1902)

Portrait of a man in green gown (circa 1886)

Signed lower right

Oil on canvas, H. 46 x W. 38 cm

Vanaise started taking lessons at the Ghent Art Academy from a young age. Initially, his father only allowed him to spend part of his time on drawing lessons so that he could learn the baking trade for the rest of the time. Vanaise Sr. envisioned a future for him as a pastry chef. Later, he was allowed to focus entirely on his education at the Academy, where he took lessons from, among others, Théodore-Joseph Canneel. In 1887, he undertook a study trip to Spain in the company of artist Jules Lambeaux. Vanaise mainly painted historical scenes and portraits of the bourgeoisie of Ghent and Brussels. He regularly portrayed his wife, Marie De Coster, in his works until she died in 1891.

The present portrait can be compared to a painting by the hand of the artist in Museum M in Louvain, Belgium. It is likely the depicted man was one of the models travelling around Europe, making a living out of being portrayed to cater to the demand for ‘Oriental’ portraits. However, Vanaise was able to depict the portrayed without any ‘oriental’ attributes, which makes it a simple but strong portrait.

Bronze, H. 12.2 cm

Charles Cordier’s career as a sculptor took off in 1848 after completing a portrait bust of Seïd Enkess, a freed enslaved African who had become a professional model in Paris. Cordier exhibited the bust at the Salon under the title ’Saïd Abdallah of the Mayac Tribe, Kingdom of Darfur’. This marked the beginning of his non-European portraiture. In 1851 Cordier exhibited at the London Crystal

Palace Great Exhibition where Queen Victoria acquired a bust of Saïd, as well as the female head ‘African Venus’, as gifts for Prince Albert. In the same year, Cordier received a commission from the French state to make bronze busts of Saïd Abdallah and African Venus for the anthropology room at the Jardin des Plantes.

‘African Venus’ (1851?) 4. Charles Henry Joseph Cordier (1827-1905)

’Saïd Abdallah of the Mayac Tribe, Kingdom of Darfur’ (1848)

Bronze, H. 12 cm

In 1856 a grant enabled Cordier to leave on a mission to Algeria to “study the various types of indigenous peoples from the standpoint of art’” This body of work is presented as his ‘Ethnographical and Anthropological Gallery, comprising 50 sculptures at the Palais de l’Industrie, Paris in 1860. In the same year, Cordier was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour by Napoleon III. The present sculptures were exhibited at Facing

the Other: Charles Cordier (1827-1905), Ethnographic Sculptor, Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec; and Dahesh Museum of Art, New York, 2004.

Literature:

Laure de Margerie, Maria Vigil, Edouard Papet & Christine Barthe, Facing the Other: Charles Cordier (1827-1905), Ethnographic Sculptor, 2004, p. 75, no. 92 & 93 (ill., this pair)

Provenance:

William and Marijke Bevan, Uckfield, England

Follower of Andries Beeckman (1628-1664) African Woman with Tambourine (c. 1685-1725)

Watercolour on paper, H. 31 x W. 20.5 cm

The paper has an Amsterdam coat-of-arms watermark used between 1685 and 1700. Since paper could have been stored, this drawing might have been made slightly later, but probably in the last quarter of the 17th century.

Provenance:

- Private collection, United Kingdom

- With Finch & Co, London

Andries Beeckman travelled to the Cape and Batavia (Jakarta) as one of the few artists early in the 17th century. Beeckman’s work provides valuable visual accounts of 17th-century life in the Dutch colonies. His works are characterized by intricate details and a keen observation of daily life, trade activities, and the diverse peoples of the former Dutch East Indies and the Cape.

The African woman in this watercolour can be seen wearing ‘slave beads’. These had the symbolic function of reinforcing a woman’s social identity and, simultaneously to ward off evil (or potentially dangerous spirits). The beads were silent witnesses in one sense, and they were also exquisitely revealing in others. They spoke loudly to individuals familiar with their cultural framework. Ironically, one reason owners of enslaved Africans let women wear beads and other similar objects that expressed a woman’s African cultural identity was that the potent symbolism escaped ‘Western’ eyes. European or Euro-American men saw beads as simply decorative trifles: women’s things not worthy of much heed; thus, they survived. By diminishing the importance of jewellery, members of the dominant culture unknowingly permitted its use and, hence, its African symbolism to persist unchecked.

According to the other copy in the Rijksmuseum, the original title of this drawing is ‘Een Kafferin’ The term Kaffer or Kaffir, is an exonym and an ethnic slur – the use of it for black people being particularly common in South Africa. In Arabic,

the word kāfir (“unbeliever”) was originally applied to non-Muslims. During the Age of Exploration in early modern Europe, variants of the Latin term cafer (cafri) were adopted in reference to non-Muslim Bantu peoples even when they were monotheistic. It was eventually used, particularly in Afrikaans, for any black person during the Apartheid and Post-Apartheid eras, closely associated with South African racism. It became a pejorative by the mid-20th century and is now considered extremely offensive hate speech.

This drawing is one of a series of illustrations depicting non-Europeans, often presented in an album. Andries Beeckman probably made several similar series that found a ready market among European collectors and owners of cabinets of curiosities. The Album de Paulmy in the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris contains fifty-five sheets of people and animals, of which two are signed by Beeckman. This series includes inhabitants and animals from Asia, Africa, and South America. Beeckman would have been able to see the Asian and African subjects on his journey to Indonesia, so most of them were probably drawn from his own observation.

This is not the case for the South American animals because, as far as we know, Beeckman never visited that continent. Beeckman’s watercolour series were so popular that they were still being copied well into the 18th century. Fragments of at least three other series are known.

The Rijksmuseum acquired sixteen sheets. These early copies after Beeckman. To judge by the watermark and the style, they date from the last quarter of the seventeenth century or the beginning of the eighteenth. They may have been made after an original series by Beeckman that has not survived because several drawings in this series, like The Ternatan, The Persian and The Mestiza, are not in the Paulmy Album or other series. Research has revealed that eighteen sheets from the same series are still in private collections. This means that we know of thirty-four watercolour drawings in this series, sixteen of which are in the Rijksmuseum. The present drawing is part of another series of drawings - since the Rijksmuseum already holds a copy of the woman with a tambourine. Due to the comparable watermark in both drawings, they were made at almost the same time and perhaps by the same hand.

Sources:

Onishi, Norimitsu, “Jail Time for Using South Africa’s Worst Racial Slur?”, in: The New York Times, 27 October 2016.

Menno Jonker, Erlend de Groot, Caroline de Hart, Niels Bergervoet , Van velerlei pluimage : zeventiende-eeuwse waterverftekeningen van Andries Beeckman, Nijmegen, Uitgeverij Vantilt, 2014, p. 164, 167, no. 39.

Malika M’rani Alaoui, Jonathan Bikker, Jan de Hond, Frits Scholten, Eveline Sint Nicolaas, Matthias Ubl & Jeroen van Vliet, “Recent acquisitions” in: Rijksmuseum Bulletin, 2017, pp. 209-239, no. 9.

NG-2016-34-6 NG-2016-34-9 NG-2016-34-10 NG-2016-37-11

Follower of Andries Beeckman (1628-1664) African Woman with Tambourine (c. 1685-1725) Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (object no. NG-2016-37-11)

Louis-René Boquet (1717-1814)

Costume Design for an African Ballet Character

Pen and ink and watercolour on paper, H. 25.2 x W. 18.7 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Paris

Louis-René received his training in his father’s workshop, the fan painter Guillaume Boquet, located on Rue St-Denis. The youngest son of the family, Blaise, would continue the family workshop. His older brother, Jean-Baptiste Guillaume, became active as a lathe operator and painter.

Probably still as a fan painter, Louis-René became involved with the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi. This department of the Maison du Roi (the royal household staff) was charged with responsibility for ceremonies, events, and festivities. The Menus-Plaisirs had to supervise the organisation and design of royal ceremonies down to the smallest detail. It provided employment to a large number of specialised craftsmen and designers.

Boquet expanded his activities in the field of costume. From 1751 he supplied accessories for costumes in performances at the Château de Fontainebleau, such as for Molière’s ‘The Imaginary Invalid’. Not long after that, he focused on complete costumes and was mentioned as a costume designer for opera performances at the King’s residence. Eight years later, he succeeded Jean-Baptiste Martin as costume designer at the Paris Opera.

His costumes were strongly oriented towards the French tradition and harked back to motifs introduced by Jean Bérain (1640-1711) a designer responsible for the appearance of theatre costumes under Louis XIV. In this, Boquet was directly opposed to a direction in the theatre world that wanted to follow the latest modes within Italian opera.

In 1761, he collaborated with the painter François Boucher and the Venetian decorator Pietro Algieri on a revival of Lully’s ‘Armide’. Shortly afterwards, he produced a series of etchings with costume designs. The French crown created for Boquet the new office of ‘dessinateur en chef des habits des fêtes et cérémonies’. From this position, the designer provided decorations for parties at the court of Versailles and for the inauguration of Louis XVI in the cathedral of Reims, which took place in 1775. Foreign royal houses also approached Boquet for decorations at funerals and weddings. In 1781, he was eventually promoted to ‘inspecteur général’ of the Menus-Plaisirs, a position he would hold until it ceased to exist in 1792.

The most comprehensive collection of costume designs by Louis-René Bouquet and his workshop is located in the Bibliothèque d’Opéra National in Paris.

There, a drawing (possibly a study or preperatory drawing) of the present drawing is preserved. Another drawing, from the same collection depicts an ‘Africain’ and an ‘Africaine’ in costumes comparable to the present drawing. This sheet are included in ‘La France Noire; Trois siècles de présences’ by Pascal Blanchard. Another drawing of an African dancer, in design and style very similar to the present drawing, is located in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (Rothschild collection, box XX). The latter drawing adorns the cover of François Lesure’s ‘L’Opéra classique français; XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles’ (pl. 79, p. 99 in the book).

These rare depictions of black dancers may have served as designs for African characters in the operas of Rameau or as attire for actual Africans who participated as servants in festivities at the court of Versailles.

by the sixteenth century, racial thinking was already emerging as an adjunct of empire, with influence on colonial music institutions, music education, and musical composition, performance, and reception. Race was also sometimes a factor in metropolitan musical life, especially musical theater. Racial impersonation was customary in European morris dancing and in vocal moresche (as in Lassus’s collection of 1581). Spanish villancicos routinely caricatured black Africans and Afro-Europeans. Operas, masques, civic and court pageants, and comic theater often featured blackface performance. And many court productions had performing or support roles for darker-skinned, racialized domestics, including some who were enslaved.

Source: Olivia Bloechl, “Race, empire, and early music”, in: Rethinking Difference in Music Scholarship, Cambridge University Press, pp. 77-107

Louis-René Boquet (1717-1814), Maquette de costume d’un Africain, graphite on paper, 222 x 112 mm

Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Bibliothèque-musée de l’opéra (inv. no. D216 II-79)

Étienne Parrocel, called ‘Le Romain’ (1696-1775)

‘An African Uhlan Warrior of the French Volontaires des Saxe regiment’

Signed in brown ink Parrocel verso

Pen in brown and watercolour on paper, with fleur-de-Lys (1720s), H. 31.9 x W. 22.7 cm

Maurice de Saxe, famous French marshal in the War of the Austrian Succession, had a regiment of which he was particularly proud, called the Volontaires de Saxe, composed of Africans, Turkish, Tartars, and Romanians. One brigade consisted of men of colour from Guinea, Senegal, Congo, Santo Domingo, Arabia, and Pondicherry. They were mounted on white horses and under the immediate charge of one Jean Hitton, a sous-brigadier who claimed to be the son of an African king. This brigade fought in all the war campaigns directed by Maurice and, afterwards, from 1748 until his death in 1750, was stationed with him at Chambord. The men of colour were allowed to freely marry white French women - or their own women who, by this time, had rejoined the men. Despite the Marshal’s request in his will that the brigade be kept intact and pass under the control of his nephew, the government broke it up, distributing the people of colour as kettle-drummers among the various cavalry regiments.

Les Volontaires du Maréchal de Saxe were a renowned military unit consisting of dragoons and uhlans (lancers). The troops were organised and dressed according to the white gaze and ideas of the field marshal. In the present drawing, the result can be seen; an orientalising costume. Troops of lancers from the unit, composed of black men, guarded the Château de Chambord, which was the Marchal’s residence. The corps fought in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) and in the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763).

Source: Shelby T. McCloy, ‘Negroes and Mulattoes in Eighteenth-Century France’, in: The Journal of Negro History, Vol. XXX no. 3 (July 1945), pp. 283-84

François Mathurin Adalbert, Baron de Courcy (1805-1839)

‘Le Negrito à l’ancre. Dans le port de la havanne’

Indistinctly signed lower left

Titled on the mount

Pencil and watercolour, heightened with white, on paper, 24.8 x 34.6 cm

Literature:

Manuel Barcia’s, The Yellow Demon of Fever: Fighting Disease in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Slave Trade, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2020 (cover ill.)

Micael Zeuske, Sklavenhändler, Negreros und Atlantikkreolen: Eine Weltges chichte des Sklavenhandels im atlantischen Raum, Berlin, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2017,p. 105 (ill.)

Exhibited:

Mexico City, 1998, Palacio Virreinal, El Barón de Courcy, illustrationes de un viaje, 1831-1833, no. 108

Baron de Courcy was in the Caribbean in late 1832 and early 1833, following his tour of Mexico in 1832, on the last leg of his “Grand Voyage Américain” which had begun with the eastern seaboard and waterways of Canada and the United States in 1831. He had sketched the great natural wonders of the New World en route, from Niagara Falls to the Mexican sierra, but the present watercolour of the slave ship Negrito is undoubtedly the most arresting of all of his American paintings.

De Courcy paints the deck of the ship, where some of the enslaved people, probably mainly the women, were sheltered beneath spare furled sails when the ship was anchored. When sailing the enslaved were stowed in the lower decks and only when these were completely full some had to stay on loose boards above the water running across the deck. This watercolour places De Courcy in Havana in December 1832, as the Negrito is recorded as arriving in the port with its ‘cargo’ on 11 December 1832. The details of the slaver’s voyage are recorded in detail on the ‘Voyages’ list in ‘The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database’. The Negrito, captained by Francisco Antonio Sarria, flying the Spanish and Uruguayan flags, sailed from Havana for the west coast of Africa on 17 June 1832. She made landfall at Whydah (Ouidah) in the Bay of Benin and departed from Africa on 20 October with 590 enslaved Africans, bound for Havana. The passage took fifty-two days, with forty-six enslaved perishing on the voyage. The Negrito arrived with her 534 surviving slaves at Havana on 11 December 1832. By the early 1800s, Cuba had become the second-largest destination for enslaved transported from West Africa, and in the early 1830s, after the slave trade had been made illegal, the numbers landing in Havana peaked, with twenty-two slave ships disembarking their slaves in the port. By then Havana had become the largest slave port in the world, both as receiver of slaves and as the planner of slave-voyages.

John Gabriel Stedman (1744-1797)

Narrative of a five year expedition against the revolted Negroes of Surinam in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America from the year 1772 to 1777, elucidating the history of the country and describing its productions, Viz. Quadrupedes, birds, fish, reptiles, tree, shrubs, fruits & roots with an account of Indians of Guiana and the negroes of Guinea, by Captain J.G. Stedman, illustrated with 80 elegant engravings from drawings made by the author.

With sixteen of the eighty hand-coloured plates by William Blake, others by Bartolozzi a.o. Second edition, Royal quarto, large paper copy, 2 volumes, London, J.J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church Yard and Th. Payne, Pall Mall, 1806, perfect condition.

Stedman (1744-1794) was a soldier in the Scots Brigade of the Dutch army and in 1772 volunteered to accompany an expedition sent out by the States-General to subdue the revolting enslaved people in Surinam. His narrative of this service describes the marching, fighting and dying of the soldiers amid the tropical swamps of Surinam. Of the near twelve hundred able-bodied men that sailed to Surinam to fight the revolting enslaved not more than one hundred would return to Holland! Almost all died through sickness and exhaustion. In addition, the field of Stedman’s curiosity embraced not only all branches of natural history, but also the economic and social conditions of the colony.

His book, however, is best remembered for his description of the cruelties practised on the enslaved Africans and of the moral deterioration resulting to their masters. It forms one of the most vivid indictments of slavery that have been written. Not the least curious thing in the book is the story of his love relation with Joanna, a beautiful woman from mixed-background, who nursed him when sick, bore him a son but who did not want Stedman to buy her freedom and did not follow him to Europe. In 1777 Stedman returned to Holland without Joanna and his son Johnny and married Adriana Wiertz van Coehorn. His book was first published in 1796. Throughout his journal, Stedman shows every sign o,f having been genuinely and steadfastly devoted to his ‘wife’ Joanna and seems sincere to have mourned her death in 1782, suspected by poison, and later of his son Johnny at sea as a midshipman in the British navy. Stedman had three sons and two daughters with Adriana. The second of his daughters was christened Maria Joanna.

Joseph Savart (1735-1801)

Four portraits of women of Guadeloupe

Each signed, dated, and annotated À la Guadeloupe, Savart invt 3 mars 1769 and titled respectively ‘la Négresse’, ‘la Mestisse’, ‘la Cabresse’, and ‘la Mulatresse’on the backing

One drawing has a label reading BULDET - Rue de Gesvie au grand Coeur - Vend les vraix Verres de glace blanc, Estampes, Bordures de toute facons. A PARIS on the backing

Pastels on paper, H. 40 x 34 cm (each)

Provenance: Private collection, Belgium (at least since the mid-19th century); thence by descent

Included is a letter from the Louvre to the ancestor of the previous owner, dated August 8th 1929, in which is stated that the Louvre, nor the Cabinet d’Etampes in Brussels, are aware of an artist named Favart. The owner of the drawings, Mr. Brisque, read the signature wrong and made a wrong enquiry.

Joseph Savart:

Four Creole women - Quatre femmes Creoles

Séverine Laborie

Conservatrice des monuments historiques à la Direction régionale des affaires culturelles de la Nouvelle Aquitaine

(translation by Dickie Zebregs)

The recent appearance on the art market of four new pastels signed by the French painter Joseph Savart (Reims 1735 - Saint-Pierre, Martinique 1801) renews an unprecedented event that occurred in 2009 when a first pastel came up for sale in Paris. Signed and dated, the “Quatre femmes créoles” were made in Guadeloupe in 1770 (Fig. 1). The Schoelcher Museum in Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) was able to acquire it, thus offering the people of Guadeloupe the opportunity to contemplate a unique work. It sheds light on a forgotten and unknown painting produced by an adventurous artist who went to the French colonies of the West Indies in the 18th century to seek his fortune. These four new works from the corpus of Joseph Savart, executed in Guadeloupe and predating the Schoelcher drawing by a few months, contribute to a better understanding of the artist and his interests and confirm previous hypotheses regarding the meaning of these representations. 1

Rare and unique works of art

While collectors have long been interested in the art produced in the former French and English colonies of the Americas, the study of 18th-century French painting in the West Indies is still recent and thus suffers from a limited corpus and fragmentary archives.2 In the context of early colonisation, neither local elites nor the colonial administration encouraged the development of artistic life, and it is very rare to find in the archives any trace of the existence of career artists who settled permanently. At the very end of the 18th century and during the 19th century, after the colonial system of the Ancien Régime had been shaken up for the first time, small advertisements in the press attest to the existence of an art market in the West Indies. Sales of supplies for artists, framers’ advertisements, or sales of paintings constitute so many indirect traces of activity and of an interest in the pictorial arts that must have existed previously but of which we have very few examples.3

Indeed, this important movable heritage was destroyed at various points in time. In the French West Indies or French Caribbean, many properties were burnt down during revolutionary unrest and during the constant wars between the French and the British; others were lost during natural or accidental disasters. The works that escaped such dire fate, being fragile by nature, may simply have succumbed to the ravages of insects and mould that thrive in tropical climates. Thus, most of the works that have reached us are those that travelled from the colonies where they were produced back to the countries of origin or residence of their first owners. This is likely to have been the path taken by the four pastels of Joseph Savart, which bear a label from the house of Denis-Charles Buldet, a framer and print dealer on the Rue de Gesvres in Paris, which proves that they were framed there shortly after their creation.4

L’apparition récente sur le marché de l’art de quatre nouveaux pastels signés du peintre français Joseph Savart (Reims 1735 – Saint-Pierre, Martinique 1801) renouvèle un inédit survenu en 2009, lorsqu’un premier pastel daté et signé représentant Quatre femmes créoles exécuté en Guadeloupe en 1770 (Fig. 1) était passé en vente à Paris. Le musée Schoelcher à Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) avait pu l’acquérir et offrir ainsi au public guadeloupéen la contemplation d’une œuvre unique, levant un coin du voile sur une peinture oubliée et totalement méconnue, celle produite par des artistes aventuriers partis au XVIIIe siècle dans les colonies françaises des Antilles chercher fortune. Ces quatre nouvelles œuvres du corpus de Joseph Savart exécutées en Guadeloupe et antérieures de quelques mois, contribuent à une meilleure connaissance de l’artiste et de ses centres d’intérêt et confirment les hypothèses émises précédemment sur le sens de ces représentations.1

Une œuvre rare et singulière

Si les collectionneurs se sont tôt intéressés à la production artistique dans les anciennes colonies françaises et anglaises des Amériques, le domaine d’étude de la peinture française du XVIIIe siècle aux Antilles est encore récent, souffrant d’un corpus restreint et d’archives lacunaires.2 Dans le contexte des débuts de la colonisation, ni les élites locales ni l’administration coloniale n’encouragent l’épanouissement d’une vie artistique et il est très rare de trouver dans les archives des traces de l’existence d’artistes de carrière, installés durablement. A la toute fin du XVIIIe et au XIXe siècle, après que le système colonial d’ancien régime a été une première fois ébranlé, les petites annonces de la presse témoignent pourtant de l’existence d’un marché de l’art aux Antilles. Vente de fournitures pour artistes, annonces d’encadreurs ou de ventes de tableaux sont autant de traces indirectes d’une activité et d’un intérêt pour les arts picturaux qui devait exister antérieurement mais dont les exemples sont très rares.3

En effet, les occasions de destruction de ce patrimoine mobilier n’ont pas manqué. Dans les Antilles françaises, nombre d’habitations ont connu le feu des troubles révolutionnaires et des guerres incessantes qui ont opposé Français et Anglais ; d’autres ont été détruites lors de catastrophes naturelles ou accidentelles. Pour celles qui auraient échappé à ces destins funestes, le mobilier, par nature plus fragile, a pu simplement subir les ravages des insectes et des moisissures qui se développent favorablement dans les climats tropicaux. C’est ainsi que la plupart des œuvres qui sont parvenues jusqu’à nous sont celles qui ont voyagé depuis les colonies où elles ont été produites vers les pays d’origine ou les pays d’habitation de leurs premiers propriétaires. C’est vraisemblablement ce chemin qu’ont emprunté les quatre pastels de Joseph Savart qui portent une étiquette de la maison Denis-Charles Buldet, encadreur et marchand d’estampes rue de Gesvres à Paris, prouvant qu’ils y ont été encadrés peu de temps

113

Fig. 1. Joseph Savart ((1735-1801)- Quatre femmes créoles (1770) Collection Musée Schoelcher, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe

Officers, colonial administrators and officials, wealthy colonial landowners who in the second half of the 18th century preferred to entrust the management of their estates to a manager rather than reside there, brought back these works to the mainland as souvenirs at a moment in the history of taste that favoured exoticism. But what do these works tell us about these distant lands and their social and economic fabric? As it turns out, Joseph Savart’s depiction of Creole women is far more significant and militant than it might appear at first glance.

From Champagne to the West Indies

The reasons that drove this son of a bourgeois family to seek adventure in the French Caribbean, first in Guadeloupe, then in Martinique, are unknown.5 He was born in 1735 in Reims, Champagne. By 1765, he had settled in Basse-Terre, the capital of the Guadeloupe colony, where he married the widow of a weaver, Miss Christine Elisabeth Rison. In the baptismal certificate of their eldest son, Marie-Antoine, in 1768, Joseph Savart is described as a “maître peintre” or master painter. This title, at a time when artists and craftsmen were still organised in guilds, identifies him as an experienced painter, practising his profession full-time and likely taking on students. It is difficult to evaluate the volume of activity in his workshop, and he probably had other sources of income. Nevertheless, the fact that Savart chose godparents for his children among the colony’s notables suggests a level of financial ease and social recognition.6

It is also significant that out of the five works identified to date, Savart always signed and added the note ‘inv’ for invenit after his signature. This Latin term, often followed by et pinxit, highlights the artist’s creative input and the intellectual dimension of his work. By claiming to have invented these drawings, Joseph Savart emphasises the importance he places on his work as an artist and on the originality of his compositions. Furthermore, the quality of his portraits of these Creole women suggests that he specialised in portraiture. This more lucrative activity would have allowed him to mingle with the elite. The 18th century represented a golden age for portraiture, particularly for portraits drawn in pastel. Indeed, it is because Savart chose to depict these four Creole women in portrait form that he sets himself apart from his contemporaries like Augustin Brunias, who painted lively scenes with a focus on the landscape, resorting to all the clichés of exoticism.

Women’s wear: a symbol of vanity and a social marker

Each of the four women is portrayed en buste, with a close framing, their smiling gaze turned towards the viewer. Their headdresses and light-coloured clothing stand out sharply against a dark blue-black background. They bear an obvious resemblance to the four young women in the pastel from the Schoelcher Museum (Fig. 1), who are depicted standing in a trompe-l’oeil window frame, huddled together in a similarly friendly and engaging attitude. They dazzle the viewer with their beauty and the discreet coquetry of their light cotton and lace costumes and with their elaborate headdresses and jewellery. Each of them stands out due to the detail of her attire and her skin colour, in a notable variation from light to dark. Joseph Savart’s mastery of the pastel technique manifests in a very soft, almost

après leur création.4 Les officiers, les administrateurs et les fonctionnaires de la colonie, les grands propriétaires coloniaux qui dans la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe préfèrent confier la gestion de leurs domaines à un régisseur plutôt que d’y résider, ont ramené en métropole ces œuvres en souvenir, dans un moment de l’histoire du goût qui favorise les représentations de l’exotisme. Mais que nous disent-elles de ces ailleurs lointains et de leur tissu social et économique ? Joseph Savart livre à travers ces pastels de femmes créoles une vision bien plus signifiante et militante qu’il n’y paraît.

De la Champagne aux Antilles

On ignore ce qui pousse ce fils de bourgeois né en 1735 à Reims en Champagne à tenter l’aventure aux Antilles françaises, d’abord en Guadeloupe, puis en Martinique.5 En 1765, il est établi à Basse-Terre, siège de la colonie de la Guadeloupe, où il épouse la veuve d’un tisserand, demoiselle Christine Elisabeth Rison. Dans l’acte de baptême de leur fils aîné Marie-Antoine, en 1768, Joseph Savart est qualifié de « maître peintre ». Cette appellation, à une époque où les artistes et les artisans sont encore organisés en corporations, fait de lui un peintre expérimenté, exerçant à plein temps sa profession et formant sans doute des élèves. Il est difficile de se représenter le volume d’activité de son atelier et il est probable qu’il ait eu d’autres sources de revenus. Quoi qu’il en soit, le fait que Savart ait choisi les parrains et marraines de ses enfants parmi les notables de la colonie tend à démontrer une certaine aisance financière et une reconnaissance sociale.6

Il est significatif également que sur les cinq œuvres identifiées à ce jour, Savart ait toujours signé et apposé après sa signature la mention « inv » pour invenit. Cette locution latine, souvent suivie de « et pinxit », met en avant l’activité créatrice de l’artiste, sa dimension intellectuelle. En s’attribuant l’invention de ces dessins, Joseph Savart montre ainsi l’importance qu’il accorde à son travail d’artiste et au caractère original de ses compositions. D’autre part, la qualité des traits des visages de ses créoles et sa maîtrise technique laissent penser qu›il s’est spécialisé dans l’art du portrait. Cette activité plus rémunératrice, qui permet de côtoyer les élites, connaît son âge d’or au XVIIIe siècle et s’exprime particulièrement dans la technique du pastel. Or, c’est précisément cette manière de représenter son sujet, ces quatre femmes créoles sous forme de portrait, qui fait toute l’originalité de Savart par comparaison avec ses contemporains qui, à l’instar d’Agostino Brunias, peignent des scènes animées laissant une large place au paysage et déroulant tous les poncifs de l’exotisme.

Le costume, une coquetterie féminine et un marqueur social

Chacune des quatre femmes est représentée en buste, dans un cadrage resserré, le regard souriant tourné vers le spectateur. Leurs coiffes et leurs vêtements clairs se détachent nettement sur un fond noir bleuté. Elles entretiennent une parenté évidente avec les quatre jeunes femmes du pastel du musée Schoelcher (Fig. 1), représentées debout dans un encadrement de fenêtre feint, serrées les unes contre les autres, dans une même attitude aimable et accrocheuse. Toutes nous éblouissent par leur beauté et par la coquetterie discrète de leurs costumes en cotonnades légères ou en dentelles, leur coiffes élaborées et leurs parures de bijoux. Chacune se singularise par le détail de

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vaporous sketch. He brilliantly captured the materials and textures of fabrics and ornaments, placing as much emphasis on these details as on the figures’ faces. However, the pastel from the Schoelcher Museum is complex and more narrating. Three young women each bear an accessory, an attribute of their professions: the servant holds a meat dish, the seamstress or haberdasher poses with her fabric swatches and ruler in the foreground, and behind her, a street vendor carries a tray of small pies on her head. Without a landscape in the background, the illusion of depth stems from the architectural trompel’oeil set against a very bright blue background and the arrangement of the figures. The pastel from the Schoelcher museum bears the inscription “1770. Joseph Savart invenit et pinxit in Guadeloupa 17 November”

The four pastels acquired by Zebregs&Röell, which were drawn twenty months earlier, seem to be a preparatory version ahead of the larger composition. The two works share the importance given to the representation of clothing and the nuances in skin tone reflective of Creole society. Finally, they bear an inscription by the same hand that asserts they were made in Guadeloupe and when. Each of the four pastels bears the same formula: ‘In Guadeloupe Savart invt 3 March 1769’, with a different adjective each time, sic: ‘la Cabresse’, ‘la Mulatresse’, ‘la Mestisse’ and ‘la Négresse’. This highly codified terminology illustrates how colonial society was structured around the prejudice of colour.7

In the pastel from the Schoelcher Museum, the composition, which seems to waver between a portrait and a genre scene, is quite atypical. The artist appears to deviate from the usual codes of exoticism in art and places great importance on the depiction of costumes. As it so happens, this particular interest in costumes provides precious information in order to understand the deeper meaning of this work. Clothing was indeed a very important social marker in colonial society, as can be seen in the accounts of travellers who visited the Caribbean in the 18th century. The garments worn by Joseph Savart’s young women perfectly match the descriptions given by the chroniclers and artists of the time. The headwear, which occupies significant space in the composition of the Zebregs&Röell close-up bust portraits, is one of the female accessories that struck travellers the most. Here, all the women wear the bamboche, adorned with pins and flowers. This type of headwear is a powerful marker: its height and the quality of its fabrics defined the wearer’s social status. Besides, the young women have enhanced their outfits with necklaces and earrings bearing typical Creole motifs. Jewellery made in the Caribbean in the 18th century was an essential component of one’s appearance and wealth. Made of gold, they constituted savings, patiently accumulated, bead by bead, to form these grain-d’or necklaces, which, worn in multiple rows, testified to a woman’s enrichment or sentimental ties.

In the colonial context of the 1760s-1780s, however, clothing was not just a matter of fashion. It was also a tool, or even a weapon, of social domination. The clothes and accessories worn by the four young women are very significant from this point of view. The taste for luxury attributed to ‘mulattoes’ is a constant theme in accounts

sa tenue et par la couleur de sa peau, dans une variation sensible allant du plus clair au plus foncé. Grâce à une technique du pastel très maîtrisée, un crayonné très doux, presque vaporeux, Joseph Savart restitue avec brio les matières et les rendus des étoffes et des parures, auxquelles il accorde au moins autant d’importance qu’aux visages. La composition du pastel du musée Schoelcher est toutefois plus complexe et plus narrative. Trois jeunes femmes sont accompagnées d’un accessoire, attributs de leurs métiers : une domestique tendant un plat de viande, une couturière ou une mercière posant avec ses coupons de tissus et sa règle au premier plan, et derrière elle la commerçante ambulante coiffée d’un plateau de petits pâtés. En l’absence de paysage d’arrière-plan, l’effet de profondeur est donné par l’architecture feinte qui se détache sur un fond bleu très lumineux et par l’échelonnement des figures.

Le pastel du musée Schoelcher porte l’inscription suivante « 1770. Joseph Savart invenit et pinxit in Guadeloupa 17 novembre ». Les quatre pastel acquis par Zebregs&Röell, dessinés vingt mois plus tôt, semblent constituer une étape préparatoire à la grande composition. Les deux œuvres ont en commun l’importance accordée à la représentation du vêtement et aux nuances des couleurs de peau de la société créole. Enfin, ils portent une inscription de la même main qui permet de situer leur création en Guadeloupe. La série des quatre pastels commence à chaque fois par la même formule : « A la Guadeloupe Savart invt 3 mars 1769 » et se termine par un adjectif différent : « la cabresse (sic) [capresse] », « la mulatresse », « la mestisse (sic) [métis] » et « la négresse ». Cette terminologie très codifiée structure la société coloniale autour du préjugé de couleur. Dans le pastel du musée Schoelcher, la composition, qui semble hésiter entre le portrait et la scène de genre, est tout à fait atypique. L’artiste semble se soustraire aux codes iconographiques habituels de l’exotisme et accorde une grande importance à la description des costumes. Or, cet intérêt particulier pour les costumes est porteur d’informations essentielles pour comprendre le sens profond de l’œuvre. L’habillement constitue en effet un marqueur social très présent dans la société coloniale, souligné dans les récits des voyageurs qui ont parcouru les Antilles au XVIIIe siècle.

Les vêtements portés par les jeunes créoles de Joseph Savart correspondent parfaitement aux descriptions laissées par les chroniqueurs et les artistes de l’époque. La coiffe, qui dans le cadrage resserré en buste des pastels Zebregs&Röell occupe une large place dans la composition, est l’un des accessoires féminins qui frappe le plus les voyageurs. Ici, toutes portent la bamboche, ornée d’épingles et de fleurs. Ce type de coiffe est un marqueur très fort : la hauteur et la qualité des tissus qui la composent définissent le statut social de celle qui la porte. Enfin, les jeunes femmes ont rehaussé leurs toilettes de colliers et de boucles d’oreilles, dont on devine les motifs typiquement créoles. Les bijoux réalisés aux Antilles au XVIIIe siècle sont les éléments essentiels du paraître et de la fortune. En or, ils constituent une épargne, patiemment thésaurisée, perle après perle, pour former ces colliers grain-d’or qui, portés sur plusieurs rangs, témoignent de l’enrichissement ou de l’attachement sentimental dont jouit une femme.

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of the time, particularly those written by Médéric Louis Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750-1819). Hailing from a notable Creole family of Martinique, he represented the colonial elite in action on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1796, he published a ‘Topographical, Physical, Civil, Political, and Historical Description of the French part of Saint-Domingue’ (Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de SaintDomingue), in which he dwells at length on the lifestyle of the free people of colour and in particular on the luxury favoured by the “mulattoes” and the fashion trends they inspire:8

“The luxury of the mulattoes is taken to the extreme, and since 1770, it has made progress that seems incredible to those who have been able to compare the two periods. It is always in the cities that one must observe it to form an exact idea. This luxury consists almost entirely of one object, clothing. […] Everything that India produces of the most beautiful, the most precious in muslins, handkerchiefs, fabrics, and linens, takes on the forms of fashion to embellish this coloured sex. Rich laces, jewellery the multiplicity of which, rather than the genre, increases the value, are used profusely […]”9

Cependant dans le contexte colonial des années 1760-1780, l’habillement n’est pas qu’une affaire de mode. Il constitue un outil, voire même une arme, de domination sociale. Les vêtements et les accessoires portés par les quatre jeunes femmes sont de ce point de vue très signifiants. Le goût du luxe prêté aux « mulâtresses » [ed. Aujourd’hui de préférence appelées personnes de descendance mixte] revient constamment dans les commentaires de l’époque, en particulier ceux de Médéric Louis Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750-1819). Issu d’une famille notable créole martiniquaise, représentant de l’élite coloniale agissante de part et d’autre de l’Atlantique, il publie en 1796 une Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de SaintDomingue dans laquelle il s’attarde longuement sur le mode de vie des « libres de couleur et en particulier sur le luxe qu’affectionnent les « mulâtresses » et les modes vestimentaires qu’elles font naître:7

« Le luxe des mulâtresses est poussé au dernier terme et depuis 1770 il a fait des progrès qui paraissent incroyables à ceux qui ont pu comparer les deux époques. C›est toujours dans les villes qu›on doit l›observer pour en avoir une idée exacte. Ce luxe consiste, presque entièrement, dans un seul objet, l’habillement. […] Tout ce que l’Inde produit de plus beau, de plus précieux en mousselines, en mouchoirs, en étoffes et en toiles, vient prendre les formes de la mode pour embellir ce sexe coloré. De riches dentelles, des bijoux dont la multiplicité, plus que le genre, augmente la valeur, sont employés avec profusion […] ».8

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Fig. 3. Marius-Pierre Le Masurier (1735-1801) - Portrait de la famille Maximilien Claude Joseph de Choiseul Meuse (1736-1816), à la Martinique, accompagné d’une nourrice tenant un enfant dans ses bras (1775) Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux Fig. 2. Marius-Pierre Le Masurier (1735-1801) ‘Famille de mulâtres’ (1775) Collection Musée du quai Branly (inv.no. 75.1557 IA)

A reaction against colour prejudice

This taste for clothing, which seems to be characteristic of people of mixed descent in the colony, is not just vanity. It reveals the violence inherent in a society where slavery was very much present, with the appearance and spread of colour prejudice in the French colonies of America in the 18th century. “Noirs”, “blancs”, “métisses” and “hommes libres de couleur” (free people of colour): in the French Caribbean, on the eve of the Revolution, men and women were designated by their skin colour, which defined their legal status. The white population, statistically in the minority, was now rivalled by the larger group of free people of colour. Therefore, the white elites sought to confine the people of colour to an inferior place by extending racial segregation. Colour prejudice, which should not be confused with the later notion of ‘biological racism’, is the use of skin colour differences as a legitimisation of a social order and hierarchy.

It was in this light that Moreau de Saint-Méry, the spokesperson for the white colonial slavers, who perceived themselves as belonging to an ‘aristocracy of the epidermis’, theorised colour prejudice. To calculate the proportion of ‘black’ blood in an individual, he created one-hundredand-twenty-eight possible combinations of black-white ‘miscegenation’, hierarchised into nine categories: sacatra, griffe, marabout, mulatto, quarteron, mestizo, mamelouk, quarteronné, and sang-melé. For the mixed-descent population, this classification was very important. On the one hand, it was recorded in civil registers and notarial deeds; on the other hand, it established a hierarchy within which it was possible, from generation to generation, to rise, but without ever being able to cross the ‘colour line’. Indeed, “opinion [...] demands [...] that a line extended all the way to infinity must always separate the white descent from the other [...]”. It is in this context that we must place the inscriptions on the back of the four pastels of Zebregs&Röell’s ‘la Capresse’, ‘la Mulâtresse’, ‘la Métis’ and ‘la Négresse’ (as transcribed in modern French). Since colour was marked with a presumption of servitude, it results, as J.L. Bonniol emphasises, that “the fight against the ‘false free’ compels people of colour to have to prove their freedom constantly”.10 The sartorial excess observed among the freed and, in general, the development of all outward signs of wealth thus may have been the only way to mitigate the perverse effects of one’s status inherited from birth.

By showing us richly dressed women adorned with jewellery, the iconography of Savart’s pastels thus tends to represent free individuals. However, the language of clothing is not always so easy to interpret. For example, Marius-Pierre Le Masurier, a French painter active in Martinique around 1775, depicts in the foreground of his ‘Family of Mulattoes’ (Fig. 2) a richly adorned and well-dressed woman, undoubtedly free, who nevertheless receives guests barefoot. In his ‘Portrait of the Duke of Choiseul-Meuse and His Family’ (Fig. 3), Le Masurier depicts an enslaved African woman (a ‘house-slave’) barefoot but very neatly dressed, with a bamboche and adorned with jewellery, which, in another context, could indicate her status as a free woman. Thus, the interpretation of these dress codes is not straightforward. On the subject of ‘house-slaves’, Charles de l’Yver also remarks: “[...] the young, or those who are comfortable, the maids, those who serve inside the house, those in short who know how to make small profits, compete in elegance with the free or kept women, who show them their superiority by wearing shoes.” 11

Une réaction au préjugé de couleur Mais ce goût du vêtement qui semble le trait caractéristique des personnes de descendance mixte de la colonie, n’est pas que vanité. Il est révélateur de la violence que porte en elle la société esclavagiste, avec la naissance et la diffusion du préjugé de couleur, apparu dans les colonies françaises d’Amérique au XVIIIe siècle. « blancs », «noirs », « métisses », « hommes libres de couleur » : dans les Antilles françaises, à la veille de la Révolution, les hommes et les femmes sont désignés en fonction de leur couleur de peau, qui détermine leur statut juridique. La population blanche, statistiquement très minoritaire, est désormais concurrencée par les gens de couleur libres. Elle cherche à les cantonner dans une place inférieure en étendant à leur groupe la ségrégation raciale. Le préjugé de couleur, qu’il ne faut pas confondre avec le « racisme biologique » qui lui est postérieur, est l’utilisation de la différence de couleur de peau comme légitimation de l’ordre social et fondement hiérarchique.

Moreau de Saint-Méry, porte-voix des colons blancs esclavagistes constituant « l’aristocratie de l’épiderme », le théorise. Pour calculer la proportion de sang « noir » d’un individu il créé cent vingt-huit combinaisons possibles du métissage noir-blanc, hiérarchisées en neuf catégories : le sacatra, le griffe, le marabout, le mulâtre, le quarteron, le métis, le mamelouk, le quarteronné, le sang-melé. Pour les populations métissées, cette classification est très importante. D’une part elle est inscrite sur les registres d’état civil et les actes notariés, d’autre part elle établit une hiérarchie qu’il est possible, de génération en génération, de gravir, sans jamais cependant pouvoir franchir la « ligne de couleur ». En effet, . « l’opinion […] veut […] qu’une ligne prolongée jusqu’à l’infini sépare toujours la descendance blanche de l’autre […] ».9 C’est dans ce contexte qu’il faut replacer les inscriptions qui figurent au dos des quatre pastels de Zebregs et Roëll, « la capresse », « la mulâtresse », « la métis » et « la négresse » [transcription en français actuel]. La couleur étant frappée d’une présomption de servitude, elle a pour conséquence comme le souligne J.-L. Bonniol, que « la lutte contre les « faux libres » impose aux gens de couleur de devoir prouver sans arrêt leur liberté ».10 La surenchère vestimentaire observée chez les affranchis et d’une manière générale le développement de tous les signes extérieurs de richesse, semble donc le seul moyen d’atténuer les effets pervers du statut de la naissance.

L’iconographie des pastels tend donc, en nous montrant des femmes richement vêtues et parées de bijoux, à représenter des individus libres. Cependant, le langage du vêtement n’est pas toujours si simple à interpréter. Ainsi, Le Masurier, peintre français actif en Martinique vers 1775, représente au premier plan de sa Famille de mulâtres (Fig. 2) une femme richement parée et bien vêtue, incontestablement libre, qui pourtant reçoit déchaussée. Dans son Portrait du duc de Choiseul-Meuse et de sa famille (Fig. 3), Le Masurier représente l’esclave de maison pieds nus, mais très proprement habillée, coiffée d’une bamboche et parée de bijoux, ce qui, dans un autre contexte, pourrait la faire passer pour libre. Ainsi, l’interprétation de ces codes vestimentaires n’est pas chose aisée... Charles de L’Yver le remarque également en ces termes à propos des esclaves de maison : « […] les jeunes, ou celles qui sont à leur aise, les femmes de chambre, celles qui sont attachées au service de l’intérieur, celles en un mot qui savent se faire de petits profits, rivalisent d’élégance avec les libres ou entretenues qui leur font voir leur supériorité par un pied chaussé 11

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A policital artwork

The distinctiveness of Savart’s pastels lies in his way of depicting these young women. They appear to us as unique individuals, following the codes of portraiture, whereas Savart’s contemporaries, like Augustin Brunias, favour the more generic setting of the genre scene. In the British islands of the Caribbean, Brunias painted the successes of his patron, the administrator of Dominica, and worked for the white planters, for whom he created small genre scenes depicting colonial society in a flattering light. Brunias was committed to representing different phenotypes, but unlike Savart, he illustrated a social hierarchy. Thus, in the painting from the Thyssen collection (Fig. 4), the woman with the ‘darkest’ skin tone is in service, while the woman with the ‘lightest’ skin tone is the most richly dressed, and the woman of mixed descent occupies an intermediate position. For Brunias, it was important to show the differences, to lift the ambiguities, whereas in the reality of colonial life, dress was used to blur the lines.

However, throughout the 18th century, colonial authorities tried to re-establish this hierarchy of fashion and clothing by regulating their use with sumptuary laws. An initial text from 1720 thus forbade free people of colour from wearing certain fabrics, notably lace, and gold jewellery. As it was difficult to implement, it was then bolstered by three ordinances in 1754, 1765, and 1809. The ordinance of July 30, 1765, almost contemporary with Savart’s pastels, stipulates in its article 3:

“That all mulattos, Indians or freed Negroes or others, free by birth, of any sex, may dress in gingham cloth, cotton, calico or other equivalent fabrics of little value, with similar garments on top, without silk, gilding, or lace, hats, shoes and simple hairstyles, under penalty of prison and confiscation of their clothes [...]”.12

The accounts of chroniclers, like Savart’s pastels, demonstrate the inefficiency of these laws. But Savart went even further by having the woman with the darkest skin wear the most precious clothing adorned with rich lace and the finest gold jewellery. Considering the law at the time, this was a real provocation.

Another significant feature of Savart’s pastels is that they represent these women for themselves, as who they were. No painterly artifice distracts us: the backgrounds are neutral, and all the focus is on these individuals. In the Schoelcher Museum pastel, the young women are depicted with the attributes of their activities. Although modest, these small traits celebrated the success of a new social class, that of free interpreneurs of colour, and even more so that of women. Whether they were, as in Savart’s work, a haberdasher or street vendor or at the head of a small business producing sugar or coffee, colonial society allowed these free women of colour the possibility to exist and live independently of men.13

Clothing and racial classification thus played a role in ethical and political dynamics, and they fed the arguments exchanged between opponents and supporters of the racist legal order based on slavery. In Savart’s era, these debates stirred colonial society and laid the ideological foundations leading to the revolutionary legislation that abolished slavery and segregation. By drawing these Creole women,

Une œuvre engagée

La particularité des pastels de Savart se trouve dans le mode de représentation qu’il choisit pour dessiner ces jeunes créoles. Elles se présentent à nous sous la forme d’individus singuliers, en mode portrait, là où ses contemporains, à l’instar d’Agostino Brunias, privilégient le cadre plus générique de la scène de genre. Dans les îles britaniques des Antilles, Brunias peint les succès de son mécène qui est l’administrateur de l’île de la Dominique et travaille pour les planteurs Blancs, pour lesquels il réalise des petites scènes de genre représentant la société coloniale sous un jour flatteur. Brunias s’attache à représenter des phénotypes différents, mais à la différence de Savart, il illustre une hiérarchie sociale. Ainsi, dans le tableau de la collection Thyssen (Fig. 4), la femme la plus noire est celle qui fait le service, la plus blanche est la plus richement vêtue, la mulâtresse occupe une position intermédiaire. Pour Brunias il est donc important de montrer les différences, de lever les ambiguïtés, alors que dans la réalité de la vie coloniale, le costume s’emploie à les brouiller.

Les autorités coloniales ont pourtant, tout au long du XVIIIe siècle, tenté de rétablir cette hiérarchie de la mode et du vêtement en encadrant leur usage par des lois somptuaires. Un premier texte de 1720 interdit ainsi aux libres de couleur le port de certains tissus, la dentelle notamment, et les bijoux en or. Peu suivi, il est consolidé par trois ordonnances en 1754, 1765 et 1809. L’ordonnance du 30 juillet 1765, presque contemporaine des pastels de Savart, stipule ainsi dans son article 3:

« que tous les mulâtres, Indiens ou nègres affranchis ou autres, libres de naissance, de tout sexe, pourront s’habiller de toile gingas, coton, indienne ou autres étoffes équivalentes de peu de valeur, avec pareils habits dessus, sans soie, dorure, ni dentelle, chapeaux, chaussures et coiffures simples, sous peine de prison et de confiscation de leurs hardes [...] ».

Les témoignages des chroniqueurs, comme les pastels de Savart, démontrent l’inefficacité de ces lois. Mais Savart va plus loin encore en faisant porter à la femme la plus noire de peau l’habit le plus précieux, orné de riches dentelles, et les bijoux en or les plus fins. Au regard de la loi, c’est une véritable provocation.

Mais l’autre trait significatif des pastels de Savart est de représenter ces femmes pour elles-mêmes, pour ce qu’elles sont. Nul artifice de peintre ne vient nous distraire, les fonds sont neutres, toute l’attention est focalisée sur les personnes Dans le pastel du musée Schoelcher, les jeunes femmes sont représentées avec les attributs de leurs activités. Bien que modestes, ces petits métiers célèbrent la réussite d’une classe sociale nouvelle, celle des artisans libres de couleur, et plus encore celle des femmes. Qu’elles soient comme chez Savart mercière ou marchande ambulante, ou dans les habitations à la tête de petites unités de production de sucre ou de café, la société coloniale laisse à ces femmes libres de couleur la possibilité d’exister et de vivre indépendamment des hommes.12

L’habillement et la classification raciale participent ainsi aux enjeux éthiques, politiques, et ils nourrissent les arguments échangés entre adversaires et partisans de

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Joseph Savart participated in this debate. This commitment was also reflected in his life as a man and as a citizen. In 1792, Savart, now settled in Martinique, exiled himself and his family to Dominica, then French. Like other residents of Saint Pierre (the so-called patriot Pierrotins), he fled the domination of counterrevolutionaries who rebelled against the central power in Martinique and Guadeloupe.14 Along with other exiled Republicans, he took part in the election of the deputies of the Windward Islands to the National Convention. “Savart father, Savart son [and] Savart junior” thus participated in the first male universal suffrage vote in the history of France.15 His son Antoine, who embarked on a military career at the age of sixteen, shared the same ideas. As a lieutenant du Génie, he actively participated in the struggle that opposed the French revolutionary army to the British and the counterrevolutionaries.16

This Republican and abolitionist commitment of Joseph Savart and his sons, quite remarkable in the white Antillean society they belonged to, sheds light on the deeper meaning of these pastels of women of colour. Distinguishing himself from the pleasant genre scenes of his contemporaries such as Brunias and Le Masurier, Savart depicts these women of colour on an equal footing with white women. This was achieved by the depiction of elaborate costumes and the artifices of portraiture. The women are dignified, free, and independent - some fifteen years before the first abolition of slavery. Aware of their differences and simultaneously united as sisters, they embody an ideal, that of the union of free citizens and the promise of equality for all people.

l’ordre juridique esclavagiste. A l’époque de Savart, ces débats agitent la société coloniale et jettent les bases idéologiques qui aboutiront à la législation révolutionnaire abolissant l’esclavage et la ségrégation. En dessinant ces femmes créoles, Joseph Savart prend part à ce débat. Cet engagement se traduit également dans sa vie d’homme et de citoyen. En 1792, Savart, désormais installé en Martinique, s’exile avec les siens à la Dominique, alors française.13 A l’instar d’autres Pierrotins, il fuit la domination des contrerévolutionnaires en rébellion en Martinique comme en Guadeloupe contre le pouvoir central.14 Avec d’autres républicains exilés, il prend part à l’élection des députés des îles du Vent à la Convention nationale. « Savart père de famille ; Savart fils [et] Savart cadet » participent ainsi au premier vote au suffrage universel masculin de l’histoire de France.15 On sait par ailleurs que son fils Antoine, qui embrasse la carrière militaire dès l’âge de seize ans, partage les mêmes convictions et qu’en tant que lieutenant du Génie, il prend une part active à la lutte qui oppose l’armée révolutionnaire française aux Anglais et aux contre-révolutionnaires.16

Cet engagement républicain et abolitionniste de Joseph Savart et de ses fils, assez remarquable dans la société blanche antillaise à laquelle ils appartiennent, éclaire le sens profond de ces pastels de femmes créoles. En se distinguant des plaisantes scènes de genre de ses contemporains tels que Brunias et Le Masurier, Savart représente ces femmes de couleur à l’égal des Blanches, magnifiées par le costume et les artifices de l’art du portrait, dignes, libres et indépendantes une quinzaine d’années avant la première abolition de l’esclavage. Conscientes de leurs différences et en même temps unies comme des sœurs, elles portent en elles l’expression d’un idéal d’union des citoyens libres et la promesse de l’égalité des peuples.

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Fig. 4. Augustin Brunias (1730-1796) Women and a servant (c. 1770-1780) Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

(Ed.) In this essay, the term Creole is used for people of mixed descent, but always with white European ancestors.

1 Séverine Laborie, “Joseph Savart, maître peintre à Basse-Terre” in: Revue des Musées de France, February 2012-1; Séverine Laborie, “Joseph Savart (1735-1801), maître peintre à Basse-Terre” in: Bulletin de la Société d’histoire de la Guadeloupe, no. 163, September-December 2012, pp. 1-16; Séverine Laborie, “Les quatre femmes créoles de Joseph Savart: la représentation d’une société coloniale complexe” in: Un Monde créole, vivre aux Antilles au XVIIIe siècle, La Crèche, éditions La Geste, 2017, pp. 62-71.

2 One must mention, for the University of the French Antilles and Guiana, the pioneering work conducted by Danielle Bégot, continued today by Christelle Lozère.

3 Danielle Bégot, “L’expression plastique dans les Antilles du XVIIIe siècle aux années 1870”, in: Anthologie de la peinture en Guadeloupe des origines à nos jours, Conseil régional de Guadeloupe / HC Editions, Paris, 2009, p. 40-53.

4 Denis-Charles Buldet’s shop, “Au grand coeur”, disappeared in 1777. (Saulnier Duchartre, Bénézit. - Dictionary of print publishers, occ. 1758)

5 A few genealogical details may be found in several articles of the Bulletin of the Genealogy and History Association of the Caribbean, dedicated more specifically to the life of Joseph Savart’s son, Antoine (see: Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe, no. 40, pp. 620-621, 9168, p. 349, 91-97, p. 377, 92-2 p. 494).

6 The godfather, “Sir Antoine Pelletier de Lyancourt, knight, reformed captain of the bombardiers”, is the Lord of the viscounty of VillersHélon, an artillery officer and Knight of Saint-Louis. The godmother is “Lady Marie Jeanne Debury, wife of Sir Esquire Dutocq de Quesnel”.

7 (Ed.) These terms that aren’t in use anymore, but explained here, respectively: ‘capresse’ or ‘squadroon’ is someone who is of mixed (of which a quarter of black African) descent; ‘mulatto’ is someone of mixed European and black African descent; and ‘mestizo’ is someone of mixed indigenous and white European descent.

8 clear sign of the assertion of the Creole costume, its flexible and comfortable forms were adopted by white Creoles who wore a tied madras headscarf and even made their way to the mainland around 1778-1779, with the chemise dresses that Marie-Antoinette herself would promote at the Court of Versailles.

9 Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750-1819), Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l’isle Saint-Domingue…, ed. 2, vol. 1, Paris, T. Morgand, 1875. (Gallica http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ cb36491843g)

10 Jean-Luc Bonniol, La couleur comme maléfice: une illustration créole de la généalogie des Blancs et des Noirs, Paris, 1992, p. 56

11 Lettres de Charles de l’Yver, op. cit.

12 Letters of Charles de l’Yver, op. cit.

13 Marie Hardy, “La Martinique des mornes” étdude sociale des caféiers au XVIIIe siècle” in: Un Monde Créole, vivre aux Antilles au XVIIIe siècle, La Crèche, La Geste, 2017, pp. 81-88

14 The reason why Joseph Savart and his family left Guadeloupe between 1771 and 1779 to live in Saint-Pierre in Martinique is unknown.

15 285 “true Republicans” met in Roseau (Dominica) on October 28, 1792, “the fourth year of the French regeneration.” All declared having been “forced to leave their property and families because they refused to take up arms to repel the French station and to display the sign of revolt.” Believing themselves to be “the only ones faithful to the metropole,” they were, therefore, the only ones with the right to elect deputies to the Convention. These deliberations and votes were recorded at the Convention on September 15, 1793. (Source: Paris, National Archives no. AN C//181/86). See the remarkable article by Bernadette & Philippe Rossignol: “La Dominique refuge des pierrotins patriotes” in: Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe, no. 226, June 2006, pp. 2829, as well as that of Pierre Bardin, “À la Dominique, 1792: Les électeurs des députés a la Convention” in: Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe, no. 226, June 2006, Paris, pp. 31-37.

16 He participated as a lieutenant of the Engineers (lieutenant du Génie) in the two sieges of Martinique against the British, in 1793 and 1794. After a period of captivity, he continued his action in Guadeloupe alongside Victor Hugues, sent by the Convention to drive out the British and abolish slavery (Campagne de Brumaire, An III, October/November 1794).

1 Séverine Laborie, « Joseph Savart, maître peintre à Basse-Terre », Revue des Musées de France, février 2012-1 ; Séverine Laborie, « Joseph Savart (1735-1801), maître peintre à Basse-Terre », Bulletin de la Société d’histoire de la Guadeloupe, no. 163, sept-dec. 2012, pp. 1-16 ; Séverine Laborie, « Les quatre femmes créoles de Joseph Savart : la représentation d’une société coloniale complexe », Un Monde créole, vivre aux Antilles au XVIIIe siècle, La Crèche, éditions La Geste, 2017, pp. 62-71.

2 Il faut citer pour l’université des Antilles-Guyane, les travaux pionniers conduits par Danielle Bégot poursuivis aujourd’hui par Christelle Lozère.

3 Danielle Bégot, « L’expression plastique dans les Antilles du XVIIIe siècle aux années 1870 », Anthologie de la peinture en Guadeloupe des origines à nos jours, Conseil régional de Guadeloupe / HC Editions, Paris, 2009, p. 40-53.

4 L’enseigne ‘Au grand cœur’ de Denis-Charles Buldet disparaît en 1777. Saulnier Duchartre, Bénézit - Dict. des éd. D’Estampes, Occurrence 1758

5 Des éléments généalogiques le concernant ont été publiés dans quelques articles du Bulletin de l’Association de Généalogie et d’Histoire de la Caraïbe consacrés plus spécifiquement à la vie du fils de Joseph Savart, Antoine (Bulletin de l’Association de Généalogie et d’Histoire de la Caraïbe, n°40 pp. 620-621 ; questions 91-68 p. 349, 91-97 p. 377, 92-2 p. 494).

6 Le parrain, « Messire Antoine Pelletier de Lyancourt, chevalier, capitaine réformé des canonniers bombardiers », est Seigneur de la vicomté de Villers-Hélon, officier d’artillerie et chevalier de SaintLouis. La marraine est « Dame Marie Jeanne Debury, épouse du sieur écuyer Dutocq de Quesnel ».

7 Signe manifeste de l’affirmation du costume créole, ses formes souples et confortables sont adoptées par les créoles blanches coiffées d’un madras noué, et s’importent même en métropole vers 1778-1779, avec les robes en chemise que Marie-Antoinette mettra elle-même à la mode de la cour de Versailles.

8 Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750-1819), Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l’isle Saint-Domingue…, edition 2, tome 1, Paris, Ed. T. Morgand, 1875. (en ligne sur Gallica http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ ark:/12148/cb36491843g)

9 Moreau de Saint-Méry, op.cit.

10 Jean-Luc Bonniol, La couleur comme maléfice : une illustration créole de la généalogie des Blancs et des Noirs, Paris, 1992, p. 56

11 Lettres de Charles de l’Yver, op. cit.

12 Voir Marie Hardy, « La Martinique des mornes : étude sociale des caféiers au XVIIIe siècle, in Un Monde créole, vivre aux Antilles au XVIIIe siècle, La Crèche, éditions La Geste, 2017, pp 81-88.

13 Sans que l’on sache pour quel motif, Joseph Savart et sa famille quittent la Guadeloupe entre 1771 et 1779 pour habiter SaintPierre en Martinique.

14 Habitants de la ville de Saint-Pierre à la Martinique.

15 Ils furent 285 « vrais Républicains » qui se retrouvèrent à Roseau (Dominique) le 28 octobre 1792, « l’an quatrième de la régénération française ». Tous déclarèrent avoir « été obligés de quitter leurs biens et leurs familles parce qu’ils ont refusé de prendre les armes pour repousser la station française et d’arborer le signal de la révolte ». Estimant être « les seuls fidèles à la métropole », ils sont donc les seuls en droit d’élire des députés à la Convention. Ces délibérations et votes seront enregistrés à la Convention le 15 septembre 1793. Source : Paris, Archives nationales AN C//181/86. Voir le remarquable article de Bernadette et Philippe Rossignol : « La Dominique refuge des pierrotins patriotes », Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe, n° 226, juin 2006, p. 28-29, ainsi que celui de Pierre Bardin, « À la Dominique, 1792 : Les électeurs des députés à la Convention », ibid., p. 31-37.

16 Il participe en tant que lieutenant du Génie aux deux sièges de la Martinique contre les Anglais, en 1793 et 1794. Après une période de captivité, il poursuit son action en Guadeloupe aux côtés de Victor Hugues, envoyé par la Convention pour chasser les Anglais et abolir l’esclavage (campagne de Brumaire An III, octobre/ novembre 1794).

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