UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Noir / Blanc: Representations of Colonialism and Cosmopolitanism in Eighteenth Century Painting A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, Theory, and Criticism by Matthew W. Jarvis Committee in charge: Professor Norman Bryson, Chair Professor Rachel Klein Professor Kuiyi Shen Professor Lesley Stern Professor Cynthia Truant 2013 Copyright Matthew W. Jarvis, 2013 All Rights Reserved. The Dissertation of Matthew W. Jarvis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2013 iii DEDICATION For Robert and Vernal Kehm who were always there for me. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page................................................................................. iii Dedication........................................................................................ iv Table of Contents............................................................................. v Vita .................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgements.......................................................................... vii Abstract............................................................................................ viii Noir.................................................................................................. 1 “Inde irae”........................................................................... 1 “Painful Assurances”........................................................... 23 “The Ties That Bind”.......................................................... 41 “Hit”.................................................................................... 46 “From Slave to Muscadin”.................................................. 73 Blanc............................................................................................... 110 “Chat botté”........................................................................ 110 “Josephine”......................................................................... 138 “Arcole”.............................................................................. 146 “18 Brumaire, An VII”........................................................ 155 “Warrior to Bureaucrat”...................................................... 159 “Chryselephantine”............................................................. 167 Select Bibliography......................................................................... 178 v VITA 2005!! Bachelor of Arts, The College of William and Mary 2008!! Master of Arts, California State University, Fullerton 2013!! Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego Fields of Study Major Field: 18th and 19th Century American, British, and French Art Secondary Field: Film History and Theory vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is currently under revision and being prepared for submission for publication. Jarvis, Matthew. Noir / Blanc: Representations of Colonialism and Cosmopolitanism in Eighteenth Century Painting. vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Noir / Blanc: Representations of Colonialism and Cosmopolitanism in Eighteenth Century Painting by Matthew W. Jarvis Doctor of Philosophy in Art History, Theory, and Criticism University of California, San Diego, 2013 Professor Norman Bryson, Chair Anne Louis Girodet showed his portrait of Belley at the Salon of 1798 during the height of the Directory government. Belley represented a history of where France had been and where it was at the time. When we look upon Girodet’s painting we are compelled to reflect upon the sacrifices of three revolutions as well as the slave trade itself. Girodet absorbs and re-articulates an entire epistemology of the black figure in anglo as well as French painting. Belley accounts for a great deal of aesthetic shifts in fashion as well English effects on French artistic practices. Girodet presents not only a vii challenge to history painting but academic practices with regards to the body. What we see in Belley is a new France where a black man, former slave, can rise to be a French aristocrat. At the same time that Belley was being painted a young military officer from Corsica was starting to make a name for himself in France. Napoleon Bonaparte would have a meteoric rise to height that no one in the modern world has since surpassed. Ever present in his mind and manner, though, were his roots on the tiny island possession that had been conquered by France just before his birth. Through painting and controlled artistic propaganda we see Napoleon emerge as a figure who articulates the northern and southern extremes of his empire in addition to the historical lineage he attempts to lay claim to. Ingres’ 1806 of Napoleon Enthroned, later to be re-imagined by Andrea Appiani, is the concluding presentation of a body that has left the Mediterranean world and scaled the heights of Valhalla as well as absorbed the presentation of the ancient caesars. Like Belley, Napoleon is born into colonialism. Both men, however, break their chains. Each is ascendent and in representation shows a worldliness that few at the time possessed. Belley was capable of moving beyond the Atlantic and the West Indies to become a cosmopolitain man. So too was Napoleon a man of the world, however, in his case, it was a world which he controlled. viii Noir “Inde irae”1 Have they not hung up men with heads downward, drowned them in sacks, crucified them on planks, buried them alive, crushed them in mortars? Have they not forced them to eat shit? And, after having flayed them with the lash, have they not cast them alive to be devoured by worms, or onto anthills, or lashed them to stakes in the swamp to be devoured by mosquitoes? Have they not thrown them into boiling caldrons of cane syrup? Have they not put men and women inside barrels studded with spikes and rolled them down mountainsides into the abyss? Have they not consigned these miserable blacks to man-eating dogs until the latter, sated by human flesh, left the mangled victims to be finished off with bayonet and poniard?2 Leaning casually as though the passing breeze were his only concern stands Jean-Baptiste Belley. The ease of his stance makes Belley seem at home and, yet, a background wilderness of lush green mountains that dissipate into a milky horizon of marsh, sea, and cloud clearly belongs to some vague island or distant land which does not match his sophisticated clothing and graceful air. While Belley’s gaze does not meet our own – indeed he appears cooly indifferent to the viewer – the philosopher Raynal sternly blocks our immediate entrance into the world of Girodet’s 1796 painting. The bust of Raynal and the virtually full bodied figure of Belley dominate the right side of the canvas so monolithically as to almost entirely obscure the background. The tiny slice of St. Domingue reveals itself as if a curtain were pulled back slightly: giving us a fleeting view of what appears to be Eden, an unspoiled paradise. However, the authority of Raynal and 1 Hence the resentment. 2 Vastey, as quoted in Robert Debs Heinl Jr. and Nancy Gordon Heinl, Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492-1971, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. pp. 26-27. 1 2 Belley warns that this is no paradise. Instead, there is much to understand before coming to this part of the world. Girodet’s Portrait of Citizen Belley, Ex-Representative of the Colonies displays a man of the world. Belley is no longer integrated into one system of place. Standing in St. Domingue with the self-comportment and attire of a Frenchman, Belley begs we viewers to linger for a long time upon a deeply coded work. Belley is a freeman, yet he reflects slavery. His body in proximity to the bust of Raynal reminds us that there is a history present in this painting. Indeed, there is as much of the histories of France, England, and the United States of America in Girodet’s painting as there is the histories St. Domingue and Africa. To examine Girodet’s portrait properly we must go back to a time when pirates and anarchy ruled the West Indies. Warring countries will struggle for dominion of small parcels of land whose contents will prove extraordinary in value. Men and women will be displaced from their homelands. Cruelty and inhuman acts will befall many as war at home and abroad surges across the West. Until finally, at the conclusion of the eighteenth century, an elusive peace before the greater storm emerges. And it is in this brief moment where we find Belley calm and serene and leaning. In part one I will explore the history of slavery and race in the French colony of St. Domingue. From there I will move into a more general discussion of slaves in Western art from the eighteenth century using works from America, France, and England. We will see how artists’ proximity affected the representation of the slave or other. Next, I will move into a more specific discussion of the assimilated other lingering upon two works by John Singleton Copley: Watson and the Shark and The Death of Major Pierson. 3 These two paintings will form the background for understanding the role of servant versus slave as well as master / slave dialectics in painting. Continuing the evolution will be black portraits. I will take into account Lavater’s physiognomies and their presence or absence in terms of representing the black face. Finally, Girodet’s Belley will conclude the