The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) recently identified the subject and artist of an 18th-century portrait, now titled "Portrait of Eleonora Susette (1775)." The painting depicts a young woman of color, elegantly dressed, and was initially purchased by the AGO in January 2020 at Sotheby's for $68,750. At the time, the sitter, artist, and date were unknown, with the auction house estimating its value between $15,000 and $20,000.
After six years of extensive research involving curators, multidisciplinary experts, and genealogical hobbyists, the AGO determined that the woman is Eleonora Susette, born around 1756 in Berbice, a Dutch colony in present-day Guyana. She and her mother, Lucia Afiba, were enslaved. The painting was created by Jeremias Schultz in 1775. The breakthrough came from archival letters discovered by Dutch genealogy hobbyists, linking Susette to Beata Louise Schultz, the painter's first cousin, whose husband was a governor in Berbice.
The research revealed that Eleonora Susette, then around 18 or 19 years old, was transported to Amsterdam with Beata Louise Schultz after Beata's husband died. Beata likely commissioned the portrait as a keepsake before Eleonora Susette was sent back to Berbice eight months later. The AGO curator, Adam Harris Levine, expressed mixed emotions about the discovery, highlighting the bittersweet reality of her enslaved status and the lack of agency in her journey. The AGO is committed to continuing research to uncover more about Eleonora Susette's life beyond this brief period.
This identification is significant because 18th-century paintings of people of color by European artists are rare, especially those depicting Black women in such elegant attire, diverging from typical portrayals of servitude. The painting is now displayed with an updated label reflecting Eleonora Susette's identity and story, placing European art in a global context and shedding light on the deep ties between the art world and the realities of enslavement in the 18th century.
