Cover image: Toussaint Louverture (2105 bronze) by Ousmane Sow (detail)
© Entrée to Black Paris

The highlight of our last full day in La Rochelle was our visit to the Musée du Nouveau-Monde (New World Museum).

Musée du Nouveau-Monde entrance
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The museum lies on rue Louis-Benjamin Fleuriau, a street named after a descendant of one of La Rochelle's most prominent slave owners. 

Street sign - rue Louis-Benjamin Fleuriau
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The magnificent edifice that houses the museum was built between 1740 and 1750 in the Parisian style - a three-sided building flanking a courtyard closed by a grand doorway.  Plantation and refinery owner Aimé-Benjamin Fleuriau purchased the property in 1772 and enlarged it in 1780 by adding an adjoining building and garden at the rear of the original property.

Musée du Nouveau Monde garden
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The museum presents the history of France's conquest of the "New World," namely North America, South America (Brazil), and the Caribbean.  Our two-hour visit with our guide, Marie-Agnes, focused solely on France's history of slavery and the slave trade. 

Much of what we saw was located on the first floor of the museum.

Panels at the top of one room list a subset of the numerous voyages made by slave ships that departed La Rochelle for various destinations on the West African coast.

Musée du Nouveau Monde - Triangular Commerce - Room 4
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In another room, we saw paintings, models, and other items representing plantation life in the Antilles. 

Le Saladier aux Esclaves
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Le Saladier aux Esclaves (detail)
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Marie-Agnes was careful to explain that part of the reason France came to rely so heavily on the triangular trade was because it lost its holdings in Canada to the British during the Seven Years War.  She informed us that while sugar cane rapidly became the most lucrative crop to produce in the French Caribbean, indigo, tobacco, and cacao were also produced there.

She spoke about Le Code Noir (The Black Code), the book-long set of regulations on slave ownership, including forms of punishment. 

The whip displayed on the panel pictured below is made from rhinoceros nerve.

Panel describing Le Code Noir
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We saw what is purportedly the most faithful likeness of Toussaint Louverture in a portrait by Leboiteux after a drawing by Montfayon.

Portrait of Toussaint Louverture by Leboiteux
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The top floor of the museum is dedicated to contemporary art.  I found two of the works displayed there particularly intriguing. 

One was a huge allegorical painting by Congolese (RDC) artist Camille-Pierre Pantu Bodo that presented Barack Obama and the challenges he faced during his first term as president.

A New World ?
Pierre Pantu Bodo
2008 Acrylic on canvas
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The other was a photographic representation of an installation by Pierre David that the museum mounted in 2011.

Intrigued by the artistic portrayal of an 18th-century Black albino named Siriaco in a painting called La Mascarada Nuptiale by José Conrado Roza, David was inspired to reproduce the nuances of the skin tones of Black people using paint.

 La Mascarade Nuptiale
José Conrado Rosa
1788 Oil on canvas
Permanent collection
Musée du Nouveau-Monde
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He created an installation called Nuancier, which was first shown at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia in Salvador de Bahia in 2009.*

In Salvador,  David created photo portraits of 40 museum employees. At the same time, he photographed a 15-centimeter (5.9-inch) area of each employee's scapula to create a color chart similar to what is used to select paint shades for architectural and interior design projects.

He had paint created in each of these colors.  On each can of paint, he placed the photo portrait of the corresponding museum employee.

Color fan for Nuancier installation by Pierre David
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At the Musée du Nouveau-Monde, David's installation consisted of two rooms that were painted in the rose and brown hues that characterized Siriaco's skin.

The contents of these rooms were removed and replaced with tables on which sat the color chart and the paint cans.

La Mascarada Nuptiale graced the wall of one of the rooms, while the Portrait of Siriaco by Roza (which is part of the collection of the museum of the Ecole de Medicine de Paris) hung in the wall of the other room.

Photos of Nuancier installation at Le Musée du Nouveau-Monde by Pierre David
© Entrée to Black Paris

I was fascinated by the concept of this exhibition and wished I had been able to see it in person.

Descending the stairs to the ground floor, we spent several minutes in the gift shop.  Much of the merchandise sold there was books, and I was surprised to see a number of titles by U.S. authors amidst them.

Books by U.S. authors in museum gift shop
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Marie-Agnès "saved the best for last" by taking us back into the courtyard to discuss the magnificent larger-than-life sculpture of Toussaint Louverture that welcomes visitors to the museum.

Toussaint Louverture by Ousmane Sow - view from rue Fleuriau
© Entrée to Black Paris

Toussaint Louverture
Ousmane Sow
2015 Bronze
© Entrée to Black Paris

This may have been the last major work created by Sow.

The sculpture is 2.80 meters tall, and it commands the attention of anyone entering the courtyard or viewing the courtyard from the street. It was inaugurated in May 2015.

Unfortunately, the doors to the courtyard are solid, so those passing by after the museum is closed are not able to view it.

Information about the work and the artist is posted in French and English to the right of the entrance to the courtyard.

Information plaque re: Toussaint Louverture and Ousmane Sow
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On Friday morning, we set out for the train station, satisfied that we had accomplished our mission to learn about La Rochelle's history re: slavery and the slave trade.

Before entering the station, we snapped some photos of the recently inaugurated Passerelle Josephine Baker that Marie-Agnès mentioned during our tour.  It connects two La Rochelle neighborhoods on either side of the railroad tracks.

Though there is no signage to indicate the location of the footbridge, it is impossible to miss.

Passerelle Josephine Baker
© Entrée to Black Paris

Read Part 1 of this article HERE.

Read Part 2 of this article HERE.

*Read about Nuancier HERE (article in French).