The Revolt Of Saint-domingue. Haiti, The First Black Republic, Ca. 1840.

The Revolt of Saint-Domingue. Haiti, the first Black republic. Beginning in 1791, the slave revolt on the island of Saint-Domingue led to the creation of the Republic of Haiti in 1804. This painting depicts the early days of this republic. It shows a troop of Haitian soldiers who have just washed their uniforms in a river and replenished their water supply. The water is contained in barrels loaded onto horses. The soldiers are heading back towards the fortress visible in the background. This is one of the fortresses built after independence on the island's highlands to prevent the return of the colonists. This could be the Laferrière citadel, which lost its towers in the 1842 earthquake. The painting is characteristic of a French or European school, ca. 1840, as the theme of the Saint-Domingue revolt was also explored by the Frenchman Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-1853), the Polish painter Januarius Suchodolski (1797-1875) and other painters. Landscape with exuberant vegetation, representative of the Romantic school. The painting has been cleaned, and two small tears have been repaired. It is in an important 19th-century frame.