Guillaume Guillon-Lethiere (1760-1832) An investigation into the life and works of al mixed-race Caribbean artist in pre and post-revolutionary France

Sophie Carey
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2018
BA

Subject: Painting
Country: France
Period: 18th and 19th Century

10,000 words

This dissertation grew out of an initial inquiry into abolitionist paintings which led to the discovery of ‘Oath of the Ancestors’ by Guillaume Guillon-Lethere. Initial research into the artist (which required several variations of his surname: Le Thiers, Lethier, Lethiere) elicited few results which revealed the lack of interest and scholarship that has been devoted to Lethiere. As a result, this dissertation is a study of Guillaume Guillon-Lethiere (1760-1832), a French artist of mixed-race origins from Guadelope in the French West Indies. The dissertation seeks to prove that the lack of scholarship undertaken on the artist’s work does not reflect his prominence as an artist of his time. Lethere was not an obscure painting, but rather was one of the most prominent figures of the French art world at the end of a turbulent century.

Irish Georgian Society

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Guillaume Guillon-Lethiere (1760-1832) An investigation into the life and works of al mixed-race Caribbean artist in pre and post-revolutionary France