# Jean-Baptiste Belley

- By: Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (French, 1767-1824)
- Date: c. 1797
- Medium: Black chalk, with stumping, and traces of pen and black ink, heightened with touches of opaque white, on ivory wove paper
- Classification: Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions: 36.9 × 30.3 cm (14 9/16 × 11 15/16 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Purchased with funds provided by the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/44272)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/2ee8b04a-03c3-0440-3d41-25a00401de93/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Sold into slavery as a boy, Jean-Baptiste Belley (1746–1805) bought his freedom in 1764. Belley fought in the American War of Independence and served as a captain in the French army during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) fighting to abolish slavery on the island of Saint-Domingue (now Hispaniola). In 1793 he was elected to the National Convention in Paris, becoming its first black deputy. Belley wears the uniform of a representative to the Convention. As we know from the painting for which this is a highly finished study or copy drawing, his hat feathers and sash are the colors of the French Republic: blue, white, and red. He leans against a marble plinth supporting a bust of the French philosopher and enemy of slavery Guillaume Raynal (1713–1796).

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0