biography of Jean BELZONS (XVIII)

Birth place: France

Addresses: worked primarily in Charleston, c.1792-1812

Profession: Miniaturist, drawing teacher, scene painter

Studied: claimed to have studied under David in France

Comments: He escaped the French Revolution and arrived in Charleston about 1792. In 1794, he married the sister of Thomas Sully and subsequently became Sully's first teacher. Belzon worked in Charleston until 1812, painting miniatures, portraits, scenery, and transparencies, as well as teaching. In 1796 he visited Savannah (GA) and in 1798 Georgetown and Camden (SC).

Sources: G&W; Rutledge, Artists in the Life of Charleston, 126, 147, 153, 186; Prime, II, 3-4; Biddle and Fielding, Life of Sully, 4; Dunlap, History (1918), II, 114, 238-39. More recently, see Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 2: 46.