Painting that covered up enslaved boy restored, set to hang in Met
set to hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art this fall after half a century in hiding.The Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans attributed work from 1837, titled “Bélizaire and the Frey Children,” depicts the three kids of wealthy New Orleans French Quarter banker Frederick Frey alongside 15-year-old Bélizaire — whom the family reportedly purchased as a 6-year-old.“The Frey portrait shows a surprising intimacy between the four children, suggesting that Bélizaire was a valued member of the household, despite his enslaved status,” according to ArtNet.“But at some point around the turn of the century, someone painted over Bélizaire, not only erasing him from the Frey family history but obscuring a rare example from the era of a realistic portrait of an enslaved person.”The altered portrait was kept by the Frey clan for over a century. In 1972, a descendant of the family matriarch, Coralie D’Aunoy Frey, donated the painting to the New Orleans Museum of Art and reportedly explained that Bélizaire was erased.“However, the institution chose not to do anything with that information,” the outlet reported.