This image features a classic portrait of a woman in a blue gown, showcasing historical fashion and artistic style.
For over six years, a striking 18th-century portrait at the Art Gallery of Ontario remained a mystery—its artist, subject, and origins unknown. Now, thanks to a global team of art historians, botanists, and Dutch genealogy hobbyists, the painting has been identified as Portrait of Eleonora Susette, an enslaved mixed-race woman from Guyana painted by Jeremias Schultz in 1775. The breakthrough came unexpectedly from a Dutch mother-and-son genealogy duo who discovered their ancestor had commissioned the portrait of Eleonora Susette—her enslaved household worker—after returning from Berbice. Their detective work revealed that Eleonora was brought to Amsterdam alongside another enslaved man, Michiel, with both portraits commissioned as keepsakes before the pair was sent back across the Atlantic to Berbice.
Artnet