Marie-Thérèse Zémire
Marie-Thérèse Zémire | |
|---|---|
 Marie-Thérèse Zémire - an enslaved Haitian in a 1786 oil portrait by François Malépart de Beaucourt. | |
| Born |
Africa |
| Died | December 15, 1800 (aged 28–29) |
| Occupation | slave |
| Known for | One of the very few slaves to have their image preserved |
Marie-Thérèse Zémire was a Haitian enslaved woman who had her portrait painted by François Malépart de Beaucourt.[1]
According to Charmaine A. Nelson, author of Slavery, Geography and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica, de Beaucourt purchased Zémire, and brought her back with him, when he returned to Montreal.[1] Nelson describes how she was disappointed by how earlier scholars covered the painting, when she first discovered it, when she was a student.[2] She said Barry Lord was the only earlier scholar prepared to describe Zémire as a slave and to note that "the way she was depicted was inherently sexually exploitative."
According to Nelson, Zémire was one of two slaves his wife owned, in 1786.[3] According to Nelson, Zémire was fifteen when this portrait was painted. Nelson points out that Beaucourt painted the portrait only a few years prior to the successful slave revolt that made Haiti the first slave free country in the Caribbean.
Don Rojas, of the Caribbean Reparations Commission, says her portrait is the "only fully finished portrait of an enslaved person in Canada."[4]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Caitlin Meehye Beach (2018-04-03). "Slavery, Geography and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica". CAA Reviews. doi:10.3202/caa.reviews.2018.103. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
- ↑
Suzanne Rent (2020-06-11). "Portrait of slavery in Canada". Halifax Examiner. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
In the McCord Museum in Montreal, there’s a painting that tells a bit of the story of slavery in Canada. Dr. Charmaine Nelson, a professor of art history at McGill University, knows the story of the painting well. Nelson first learned about the painting, called Portrait of a Haitian Woman, when she was studying art history at Concordia. She saw the painting in the book A Concise History of Canadian Painting by Dennis Reid, who was a curator at Art Gallery of Ontario and a professor of art history at the University of Toronto.
- ↑
"Portrait of a Negro Slave". The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2014-03-03. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
The sexually charged nature of Portrait of a Haitian Woman— the deliberate juxtaposition of the breast with the tropical fruit — is indicative of the precarious status of Black female slaves and their vulnerability to sexual exploitation.
- ↑
Don Rojas (2020-08-06). "'So much to learn': The untold stories of slavery in Canada". Caribbean Reparations Commission. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
The painting is the only fully finished portrait of an enslaved person in Canada. Usually enslaved people were depicted alongside white aristocrats and were positioned as an “appendage,” said Nelson.