BÉLIZAIRE AND THE FREY CHILDREN

REVEALED FOR THE FIRST TIME

BÉLIZAIRE AND THE FREY CHILDREN

BEFORE

AFTER

J U LY 1 - O C T O B E R 2 , 2 0 2 2 This painting was commissioned in 1837 by Frederick Frey – a wealthy German merchant and banker – and his wife Coralie D’Aunoy Favre – a member of an elite family present in New Orleans since the Colonial Era. It depicts Elizabeth, Léontine, and Frederick Frey Jr., as well as Bélizaire – the fifteen-year-old enslaved domestic owned by the children’s father. This portrait captures the complex relationship between an enslaved boy and the children of his master – growing up in the same French Quarter mansion, where there existed simultaneously a sort of intimacy alongside the psychological trauma of forced bondage.

At some point, likely in the late 19th or early 20th century, the figure of Bélizaire was intentionally painted over; effectively erasing him from the portrait. In 2005 the painting was sold to a private collector and underwent conservation. Through that slow and delicate process, Bélizaire was brought back to life within this important Louisiana painting.

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Attributed to Jacques Guillame Lucein Amans, Bélizaire and the Frey Children, c. 1837, Oil on canvas, 54.5 x 43.5 inches, Private Collection