Jean-Baptiste Belley, member of the National Convention

This portrait shows Jean-Baptiste Belley, a former slave from Saint-Domingue who was elected to the National Convention during the French Revolution. He stands in the uniform of a deputy before a tropical landscape, in a relaxed, elegant pose typical of Revolutionary political portraits. He rests his elbow on a bust of the philosopher Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, who had recently died and had supported abolishing slavery, so the work functions as a political statement in favour of liberty. Some historians have noted, however, that the painting lingers on the sitter's body, especially the groin, reinforcing an eighteenth-century French racial stereotype that linked Black men with sexual excess. This tension between emancipation and sexualisation is one of the most debated aspects of the work. It was shown at the Salon of 1798 and, after decades in Toulon, was bought by the Louvre in 1828 when it was thought to depict Toussaint Louverture. It now belongs to the Palace of Versailles.

Painter

Anne-Louis Girodet

Date

1797

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

158 × 111 cm

Museum

Palace of Versailles, Versailles

Genre

portrait

Depicts

military officer, Jean-Baptiste Belley, race, member of parliament, Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, hat, Black people, man

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