A historical painting of a woman in a green dress with puffed sleeves and elaborate hairstyle. She sits on a patterned red sofa, holding a young child with curly hair, dressed in a white-collared outfit. Both have calm expressions.

In Search of Julien Hudson

Free Artist of Color in Pre–Civil War New Orleans

edited and with an introduction by Erin M. Greenwald, with essays by William Keyse Rudolph and Patricia Brady

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In Search of Julien Hudson

In Search of Julien Hudson

Free Artist of Color in Pre–Civil War New Orleans

edited and with an introduction by Erin M. Greenwald, with essays by William Keyse Rudolph and Patricia Brady

A carefully researched examination of the New Orleans–born 19th-century painter and his Creole world.

Cover of the book In Search of Julien Hudson showing an illustration of a man with a beard in period attire. Text includes the title and subtitle Free Artist of Color in Pre-Civil War New Orleans and mentions essays by William Keyse Rudolph and Patricia Brady.

In Search of Julien Hudson: Free Artist of Color in Pre–Civil War New Orleans

HNOC 2010
hardcover • 8" × 9½" • 128 pp.
70 color images; 7 b&w
ISBN 978-0-917860-57-7

$35.00

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Julien Hudson’s life is a striking example of the way true stories mutate and assume mythical qualities over time.

Julien Hudson, born in 1811 in New Orleans, was the son of a property-owning free woman of color and a white English merchant, ironmonger, and ship chandler. Hudson began painting in the mid-1820s, training first in New Orleans and later in Paris. Little is known about his personal life, outside of scattered details found in a handful of public documents and a pair of early 20th-century reminiscences by former student George Coulon and prominent Creole of color Rodolphe Desdunes. This carefully researched volume is the most thorough examination to date of Julien Hudson and his world.

A 19th-century portrait of a man with dark hair wearing a black coat, white shirt, and black cravat. The background shows a cloudy sky and a distant body of water.

William Charles Cole Claiborne II, 1830, oil painting by Jean-Joseph Vaudechamp. HNOC, bequest of Clarisse Claiborne Grima, 1981.376.1

A woman in traditional attire sits by a window holding a fan. The background shows a seascape with a ship on the horizon. She wears a shawl with intricate patterns and gazes towards the viewer.

Portrait miniature of a Creole lady, ca. 1837–39, attributed to Julien Hudson. Courtesy of the collection of Laura Schwartz and Arthur Jussel

A portrait of a person wearing a dark outfit with lace trim, a cream headscarf, and a jeweled earring. The individual is seated against a plain background, looking at the viewer with a composed expression.

Portrait of a free woman of color, 1836, oil painting by François Jacques Fleischbein. HNOC, 1985.212

“The fully illustrated, 116-page exhibition catalog features perceptive essays by Rudolph and Brady that explore Hudson in the context of pre–Civil War New Orleans and the world of free people of color.”

Antiques and the Arts Weekly

“This exhibition catalogue is a remarkable piece of detective work and contextualization, and it is the most thorough examination to date on Hudson and his milieu.”

Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide

“[T]he show and its terrific catalog do a neat job of puncturing the mythology that has built up around Hudson and the peculiarly compelling portrait he painted. But it replaces it with a much juicier, more substantial picture of the artist in his context.”

Boston Globe

“Offers an accessible entry to an underreported community.”

Louisiana History