Black Horseman in Front of a Doorway (c. 1855): Art, History and Details

Black Horseman in Front of a Doorway (c. 1855) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The genre of equestrian portraiture dates back to classical Greek and Roman antiquity, when it was used to depict rulers and suggest power and status. The uniform of the rider identifies him as a major in the Chasseurs d’Afrique (African Light Infantry), a cavalry group within France’s colonial army in Africa. By 1855, African people were living in France, so he may have been born and raised there or have been African-born and in France for training. This photograph may be one of the earliest photographic representations of a high-ranking Black military officer.

Object facts

• Title: Black Horseman in Front of a Doorway
• Date: c. 1855
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salt print from wet collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 15.5 x 13.5 cm (6 1/8 x 5 5/16 in.); Mounted: 47 x 30.6 cm (18 1/2 x 12 1/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1999.22

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Tannenbaum, Barbara L. “Paris Is Always a Good Idea.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 66, no. 2 (2026): 10-11.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.