Thread by @WhoresofYore

This painting is now known as “Portrait of a Haitian Woman”. It was painted by the French Canadian artist François Malépart de Beaucourt in 1786.

Thread

CW: Racist language, sexual exploitation & slavery.

The sitter was an enslaved woman and the painter was most likely her owner. It was originally titled “Portrait of a Negro Slave.” It is one of the only paintings of a black woman in French Canada in the 18th century.

The juxtaposition of the breast with the tropical fruit is a reference not only to exoticism, but to her sexuality and fertility. Black, enslaved women were valued for their ‘breeding potential’ & were often portrayed as hyper sexual in white literature & art.

“Beaucourt’s portrait participated in the creation of sexual stereotypes through which Black women were viewed as sexually lascivious and deviant, which served to justify their sexual exploitation within the Atlantic Slave Trade.” thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/por…

The portrait was created in Saint-Domingue, a French colony in the Caribbean. We can not know for sure, but the sitter is thought to be Marie-Thérèse-Zémire, one of two Black slaves listed as the property of the artist’s white wife, Benoite Gaétant.

Given the suggestive pose, many have believed that Marie was Beaucourt’s mistress. This was quite common with white slavers, but the term ‘mistress’ must be resisted. Enslaved women were sexually abused. They were not mistresses.

Marie may have been one of many slaves who were transported from the Caribbean to Canadian ports like Halifax and Montreal.

You can listen to Prof. Charmaine Nelson of McGill University talking about this painting and what it tells us about women and slavery in 18th century Canada here rcinet.ca/en/2014/02/04/…