""We look at Europe in a global context and we like to highlight the ways that European artists and collectors traveled and traded with the world. Part of that is representing the people who lived in Europe but came from abroad," Adam Harris Levine, associate curator of European art at the AGO, said over email."
"The first two years of research saw a team led by Levine make steady progress. It was confirmed that the young woman was indeed clutching an orange blossom that chimed with the potted orange tree behind her—a link perhaps to the Netherlands's royal family, the House of Orange."
"Moreover, details in the sitter's blue silk gown allowed fashion historians to date the painting to between 1770 and 1775."
Researchers have identified an 18th-century portrait sitter as Eleonora Susette, an enslaved woman from Dutch-controlled Guyana. The Art Gallery of Ontario acquired the portrait in 2020, initially unknown in terms of sitter and artist. Multidisciplinary efforts, including genealogy research, traced her origins and linked her to colonial networks. The painting, created by Jeremias Schultz in 1775, is now titled Portrait of Eleonora Susette, highlighting the global context of European art and the representation of diverse histories.
Read at Artnet News
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