Elizabeth Colomba Chevalier de St. Georges Oil on canvas 36 x 46 source
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (December 25, 1745 – June 10, 1799) was a champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor. Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, the son of George Bologne de Saint-Georges, a wealthy married planter, and Nanon, his African slave. de Saint Georges is known as the Black Mozart and is the first classical composer of African ancestry.
Educated in France since age 7, de Saint Georges is famous as a fencer, especially for his duel against Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont known as the Chevalier d'Éon. Joseph also fought on the Republican side during the French Revolution, in the Légion St.-Georges, the first all-black regiment in Europe.
Elizabeth Colomba is a figurative painter who adapts the technical approach and themes of traditional Western portraiture in order to interrupt stereotypical representation of the black body. By mixing classical painting with inherently black signifiers, including references to her own Caribbean heritage, she has developed a visual language to reconfigure the canon to include black subjectivity and its attendant narratives. Born in France, from Martinican parents. She studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris and has exhibited her work in a variety of places including Los Angeles, Switzerland, Martinique, Florence, and New York. www.elizabeth-colomba.com
