Jacob Lawrence’s The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture Series
In 1938, Jacob Lawrence, one of the most prominent modern artists of the 20th century and a seminal figure of the Harlem Renaissance, completed a 41-panel series based on the life of General Toussaint L’Ouverture, a statesman and military genius descended from West African royalty.
Internationally renowned and hailed as “The Black Spartacus,” Toussaint led a massive uprising of self-liberated slaves during the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), which occurred in the Age of Enlightenment alongside the American and French revolutions. He ultimately defeated, in turn, Spain, Britain, and France, the most powerful European nations of his time, to gain control of the lucrative French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day the Republic of Haiti) and the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (present-day the Dominican Republic), where slavery was an integral part of the social and economic fabric of society.
The triumph over a Spanish invasion under King Charles IV, British expedition of 60,000 men sent by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and French expedition of 50,000 soldiers dispatched by Napoleon Bonaparte resulted in the first—and only—successful slave revolt in human history and the establishment of a self-governing state.
Haiti was the first European colony in the Caribbean and Latin America to win independence, inspiring liberation movements across the Atlantic world. The country was also the first true democracy in the Western Hemisphere due to its practice of social equality, which is the definition of democracy. Additionally, Haiti was the first Black republic in the world and, during the late 18th century, was once the wealthiest and most profitable colony on Earth.
Notably, our founder and creative director’s family acquired select signed and numbered silkscreen prints from Lawrence’s series on the brilliant Haitian revolutionary leader. The screenprints are an abridged version of the 41-panel tempera paintings of the same title.
