Portrait of Joseph Bologne, Monsieur (later Chevalier) de St. Georges

Title: Portrait of Joseph Bologne, Monsieur (later Chevalier) de St. Georges
Description: The Chevalier de Saint-Georges was one of the most accomplished musicians and athletes of his generation. Born on the West Indian island of Guadeloupe to an enslaved Black mother renowned for her beauty and a white French plantation-owner father, he was taken to France as a child to be educated. At thirteen he entered the Royal Polytechnic Academy of Weapons and Riding in Paris and soon developed into a champion fencer. This mezzotint responds to a London visit of 1787, made at the invitation of the fencing master Henry Angelo, where Saint-Georges participated in exhibition matches. During his stay, he was painted by the American artist Mather Brown and this print reproduces that now lost painting.
creator: Brown, Mather
date created: 1788
cultural context: French, English
Rights Holder: National Museum of American History
Source: National Museum of American History
material: print; mezzotints (prints)
measurements: sheet: 47.5 cm x 32 cm; 18 11/16 in x 12 19/32 in
plate: 38 cm x 27.5 cm; 14 31/32 in x 10 13/16 in
Technique: print publishers
Subject: musicians; Neoclassical; Rococo