Haiti - Culture : Return of the «Serment des Ancêtres» in Haiti
Last Friday, President Michel Martelly, accompanied by Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, Jean Mario Dupuy, Minister of Culture, Ambassador of France in Haiti Didier Lebret, welcomed to the diplomatic lounge of the airport Toussaint Louverture the table "Serment des Ancêtres" (Oath of the Ancestors) after two years of restoration in France.
Painted in 1822, the painting "Serment des Ancêtres" is the work of the painter Guillaume Guillon-Lethière (1760-1830). Its symbolism revolves around the historic meeting between the head of mulattoes of Saint-Domingue, Alexandre Petion, and the Black general Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint Louverture Lieutenant. The latter sealed in November 1802 an alliance to oust the French troops. After this solemn "Oath", Haiti's independence should be granted.
The painting "Serment des Ancêtres" was the only of the career of Guillon-Lethière evoking its origins. This work is a testament to the solidarity demonstration of the painter towards the young Republic of Haiti. It was offered to Haiti: clandestinely transported by his son, he came to Port-au-Prince in March 1823. Disappeared since the late nineteenth century, it was found in the Cathedral of the Haitian capital in 1991, restored by the Louvre in Paris, before returning to Haiti in 1998.
It was first presented in February 1998 at the Louvre, which ensured the restoration and then to Unesco, before being transferred to Guadeloupe, homeland of the painter, and exhibited at the Fort Delgrès April 18 to May 28. Then the table joined the Republic of Haiti, to which Lethière had donated it in 1822. It is deposited at the National Palace. With the destruction of the Palace sésime January 12, 2010, the table wiped another tragedy.
