Julien Hudson

 

Julien Hudson is known as the first African American or French Creole artist operating in America whose self-portrait has been identified. Hudson's father was John Thomas Hudson, a British ship chandler and ironmonger, and his mother was Suzanne Désirée Marcos, a free New Orleans quadroon (a child of parents descended from a mixture of African and Caucasian genes).

Hudson studied with Alexandre Abel du Pujol in Paris after 1827. In 1831, Hudson opened his own studio in Bienville Street, New Orleans. He specialized in portraits and miniatures. He also taught drawing.

One of his important works as his painting Battle of New Orleans (1815), which documented the contribution made to the War of 1812 by the famous corps of free Black soldiers and its white commander, Colonel Michel Jean Fortier, Jr. Hudson is also distinguished for painting, in 1839, the only known self-portrait of an Creole artist in the antebellum period.

His painting of the Battle of New Orleans (painted 1839?) features the free black soldiers who fought with Colonel Jean Michel Fortier Jr. in 1815, during the War of 1812. (This painting has been published as dated to 1815, but that would mean Hudson painted the work at the age of four. Highly unlikely.)

 

American/New Orleans, c. 1811-1844), “Portrait of a Creole Gentleman” , oil on canvas, unsigned, remnant of framing label en verso, 13 in. x 10 3/4 in., in a period gilt frame. [$10000/15000]

Julien Hudson, a free man of color, enjoyed a successful career as an artist and teacher in antebellum New Orleans. His father was an English ship chandler and iron monger and his mother, Suzanne Désirée Marcos, was a New Orleans free quadroon. During this period, there was a large class of free men of color who worked as professional artists, musicians, writers, craftsmen and cigar merchants in the city.

Initially Hudson studied with New Orleans artist Antonio Meucci and later furthered his training in Paris. In 1831 he opened a studio on Bienville Street and advertised as a specialist in portrait and miniature painting.

Hudson’s signed “Self Portrait” in the Louisiana State Museum Collection (currently on display in the Cabildo) is similar in style and treatment to the “Portrait of a Creole Gentleman.” Both of these paintings are relatively small in terms of standard sizes for Louisiana portraits of this period, and apparently reflect Hudson’s abilities at miniature painting.

 

Important Works:

Only four paintings have been identified.

• Self Portrait, 1839, Louisiana State Museum, Baton Rouge


• Jean Michel Fortier III, 1839, Louisiana State Museum, Baton Rouge


• Battle of New Orleans, 1839?


• Portrait of a Creole Gentleman, n.d.

Date and Place of Death:

1844, New Orleans (?)

Sources:

Driskell, David C. Two Hundred Year of African American Art.
Los Angeles and New York: Los Angeles County Museum and Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.

Source

Reference: Patricia Brady, “A Mixed Palette: Free Artists of Color of Antebellum New Orleans,” The International Review of African American Art: 19th Century African American Fine and Craft Arts of the South, Hampton University Museum, Virginia, Volume 12, No. 3, pp.5-8.