Who is Bélizaire?

Imagine being given a painting. In the painting, you see three children, but before you leave with the painting you are told the painting includes a fourth figure who was painted over. This is the case for a painting currently known as Bélizaire and the Frey Children. In the now-restored painting, you will see four children who appear to range from the ages of four to sixteen. Three of the children are white, and one of them is brown. Can you guess which figure was covered up and why? Two Louisiana historians, Jeremy K. Simien and Katy M. Shannon, searched for the answers to these questions about this unusual painting. 

The painting was commissioned by a Louisiana family, the Freys, in 1837. It depicts the three oldest Frey children and an enslaved child the family owned. As the painting was passed down, the names of the figures were lost to time. But the story remained that an enslaved figure was hidden in the painting. The painting was donated to a Louisiana institution in 1971 with full knowledge of the hidden figure. This institution would later deaccession (a process of removing works from a collection) the painting because they considered it to be an irrelevant work of art. This is not an unusual process for institutions; however, this painting—along with another that was donated with it—went to auction in a state other than Louisiana. Not only did it go to auction in a different state, but it also went to auction without the hidden figure being revealed. 

The hidden figure would not be uncovered until an art dealer purchased and restored the painting after 2005. The history of the now-uncovered figure would not be revealed until 2021 after Jeremy K. Simien purchased the painting. With the help of Katy M. Shannon, Simien was able to recover the figure’s name, Bélizaire. Through their research, they discovered Bélizaire spent most of his childhood and adult life with the Frey family, although he was not related to them. He was sold at one point to take care of Mr. Frey’s debts, purchased back by Mrs. Frey, and then sold to a plantation after Mrs. Frey’s death. 

What makes this painting unique for its time and region is how Bélizaire is portrayed. Paintings of enslaved individuals typically showed them in a subservient, sketchy (undetailed) manner or posed and relegated to the darkest corner of the painting. Bélizaire, although aloof and looking in a different direction from the other children, has been painted carefully and realistically. He is not depicted as caricature. He is shown in a state of bored relaxation, proportional in size to the other children. Although care has been paid to the depiction of Bélizaire, we must remember that he was still an enslaved person. 

 At some point, presumably, decades later, Bélizaire was covered up. Currently, the reason for the coverup is a mystery. The painting was passed down in the family until it was given to a family friend who donated it in 1971. The painting resided in Louisiana except for a short period when it was deaccessioned and bought by private collectors. But there are a few historical clues that may direct us to the answer: the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow eras, the latter two being the most significant. We can only theorize why Bélizaire was covered as the research is still recent and fresh. But it does bring attention to other paintings like it that are sitting in storage at other institutions, waiting for their hidden figures to be rediscovered. 

Questions for Discussion 

Square, Jonathan Michael. “Jeremy Simien and Kary Morlas Shannon share the hidden history of a Louisiana portrait.” Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom, 10, Jan. 2022, https://youtu.be/uOOCQ9oRWWg. 

Clark, Maria. “The Boy Who Was Almost Erased from an 1837 Painting Now Has an Identity and a Story.” The Daily Advertiser, The American South, 26 Oct. 2021, https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/american-south/2021/10/26/circa-1837-painting-of-frey-children-louisiana-mystery-boy/8421392002/.