For over 100 years,
this family portrait held a secret: a fourth figure
that had been painted out. Now, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art has just acquired
the painting, one of the few 19th-century portraits to realistically portray
an enslaved person. Its incredible
journey to the Met tells a story about the
erasure of Black figures throughout American history. And it might have
been lost forever if not for Jeremy K. Simien. [MUSIC PLAYING] “My ancestors, people
of African descent, are a part of this
United States. And we have got to be
able to see ourself in a historical context. The paintings that survive
are incredibly important because so few remain.” Simien, an art
collector, first stumbled across the painting
in an auction record. The painting was unsigned. But Jeremy thought it
looked similar to the work of renowned portraitist
Jacques Amans. Then, he found
another auction record from a few years prior. But in that image
the enslaved child had been covered up. “The fact that the boy was
covered up, it haunted me. I had to find out
where he ended up.” The story begins
with a relative of the white children in the
painting: Eugene Grasser. “The family story was that
there was a favorite slave they had, and he was
painted in the picture. And then, for whatever
reason, some time later he was painted out. No idea why.” Eugene’s mother, Audrey,
inherited the portrait. For decades she kept
it in the garage. But in 1972 she
donated the painting to the New Orleans
Museum of Art. Eugene’s mother told the
museum the family’s story about the fourth figure. But instead of
displaying it, the museum placed the painting in
museum storage – for 32 years. “I think that the story
of this picture is really a story of
institutional neglect.” Mia L. Bagneris is a
professor of art history and Africana studies
at Tulane University. “This is what the work looked
like when NOMA acquired it. And you can clearly see
the spectral outline of the figure.” “When it came in, it was not
in exhibitable condition.” John Bullard started
at the museum the year after NOMA
acquired the painting. “And you could see the shadow. But still, it’s not attributed
to a particular artist. And the children
were not identified.” “The justification that the
museum has given is that we didn’t know who
the artist was. We didn’t know who
the sitters were. Those things are often
unknown for images that feature people
of African descent and may never be known. And yet, the objects
themselves are still worthy of critical scholarship.” “There are very few museums
that can exhibit everything they own. One solution is to go through
and decide what might be appropriately
de-accessioned and sold.” In 2004, NOMA
sent the painting to be sold at auction. An antiques dealer bought
the painting for $6,000 and had the painting restored. The missing figure
was revealed. “I think, in hindsight,
it was a mistake. Yes, but mistakes happen.” After years of
searching, Jeremy finally acquired the painting in
2021 and brought it back to Louisiana. “I didn’t realize how
important it was that I own pieces pertaining to my
history until I realized how bad of a job some of
these museums were doing.” The first thing
he did was hire Craig Crawford, a
painting conservator, to do a second restoration. [doorbell] “Hello.” “Hey.” “We want to get
that retouching off. I would describe my
mission is to get the painting as
close as one can to the original intention. I’m just taking off layers
that were added in the past.” “I really wanted to find
out about the boy of color in particular. So, I started talking
to Katy Shannon.” “I wanted to show
you this list.” “She has a skill of
finding enslaved people.” “I specialize in the people
that are seemingly lost to history. But I’ve never tried to go
from a painting backward.” Katy looked back through
the Grasser family line to try and find
someone wealthy enough to commission the portrait. Finally, she found someone:
Coralie D’Aunoy Frey. Census records from
the 1830s revealed who was living in
the Frey family home. There was only one
possible candidate for who the boy could be. “And I thought, Oh my God. He’s of mixed race. He is the exact age. And he was a domestic. And I said, I found him. His name was Bélizaire.” “Bélizaire.” Now that they had a name,
Katy could dig deeper, using Louisiana property
records, which at the time included the enslaved. “There are 45 million
records here that date back to the 1730s. OK, so here it is.” Sure enough, Katy finds
what she’s looking for: Bélizaire’s bill of
sale at the age of 6, which brought him into the
Frey household in the French Quarter. “Bélizaire was sold with
his mother, Sally, in 1828. Frederick Frey was a merchant. And what I found was that
Bélizaire accompanied Frey on several voyages. So, clearly, he was a domestic
that was close to the head of the house and perhaps the
caretaker of the children.” Bélizaire was
about 15 years old when he was painted
in the portrait. It’s a picture of domestic
tranquillity at odds with the truth. “Here he is seemingly valued
as if he were a family member – and yet could be
sold away at any time.” After Frederick Frey died,
Coralie sold Bélizaire to Evergreen Plantation. It was Christmas Eve, 1856. And sometime
after he was sold, someone had him painted out. “It was covered up with
lighter colors to match the skyline.” Craig found remnants
of that skyline in the craquelure pattern. They became clues to
solve the mystery of when Bélizaire was covered up. Over time, paintings
expand and contract, creating cracks. “It would have taken 50 years
or so to have this level of cracking. The cover-up is visible within
the craquelure patterns. That would give me the
impression that the cover-up happened around the
turn of the century.” “Turn-of-the-century
New Orleans – you’re talking about a world
that had created Jim Crow laws to separate the races
to make it very clear that the two did not
belong together. Whether it was Coralie or
one of her descendants, I don’t know.” Documents show
Bélizaire was enslaved at Evergreen up until 1861,
the year the Civil War began. “Did he survive and live long
enough to experience freedom? We don’t know because
the trail stops.” “But we know his name. And we know about his journey. I think that’s incredible. My plan’s to find a
permanent home for it. The painting has to end up
somewhere where it can be seen.” In the spring of 2023, a
dealer who represented Jeremy called a curator at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art to tell her about
the painting. “I was completely drawn
and taken in by the story. In the past, we weren’t asking
all the right questions. We weren’t looking for
depictions of enslaved people in a more naturalistic
way, as an actual portrait of a person, because we
didn’t think they existed. I’d never seen one. They’re incredibly rare.” The dealer included a report
with all the work Jeremy had initiated, the
name of the artist, Katy’s research on
Bélizaire’s life and Craig’s
conservation report. “That made it possible
for us to move forward.” And so, the museum
acquired the painting for its permanent collection
for an undisclosed sum. “I’m afraid to say that far
too many pieces have been de-accessioned or not
taken in by these museums. And we’ve lost a lot as
a result of this sort of negligence. I can’t say how many works
there are like the painting of Bélizaire. But I think that everybody
should start looking in storage.”