“Haiti in the Age of Revolutions: Lafargue Rigaud’s Portraits of Independence”

Sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at the MacMillan Center, Yale University; Yale Peabody Museum; Yale Center for British Art; and Yale University’s Departments of Black Studies and of French.

Coinciding with the Yale Peabody Museum’s exhibit, “Haiti in the Age of Revolutions: Lafargue Rigaud’s Portraits of Independence” (November 9, 2026-March 30, 2027), this conference explores a transformative moment in Haitian and Black New World history through the lens of portraiture. The exhibit will feature Lafargue Rigaud’s rare 1870s paintings of Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, King Henry Christophe, and other Haitian leaders, offering a window into the Haitian Revolution and Haitian statecraft. Preserved in the Yale Peabody Museum since 1963, the 15 portraits on display serve as visual records of leaders whose complicated legacies are interwoven with revolutionary movements across the Americas. Held during the opening week of the exhibit, this conference will situate Haiti’s revolution and 19th-century statecraft from a cultural and art historical perspective. The conference features a full day of panel discussions and a keynote lecture by the renowned artist Edouard Duval Carrié, followed by a second day of workshops for K-12 educators.

This conference is made possible through the generous support of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies’ Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund, Yale University