In this artwork, how is the History of the painting discussed?
Around the turn of the 20th century, a member of the Frey family had the figure of Bélizaire painted out of the composition. When the family donated it to the New Orleans Museum of Art in 1972, the museum was informed that an enslaved person had been painted out, but no action was taken by the museum.The painting was deaccessioned  from the museum's collection in 2005, and the acquirer removed the overpaint.The collector Jeremy K. Simien purchased the painting in 2021. Simien had it further restored by Craig Crawford, who removed remaining overpaint. (Crawford had earlier restored another New Orleans painting where lace had been painted over because a restorer had incorrectly determined that the subject would not have worn lace, because of her race.)  Simien also commissioned the historian Katy Morlas Shannon to research Bélizaire's identity and history, thus recovering his name and year of birth which was previously unrecorded in the museum documentation.
deaccessioned New Orleans Museum of Art