Barbara Chase-Riboud

Article by Terri B.

Many of you may recall the novel about Sally Hemmings. The award winning book was written more than thirty-five years ago and indeed it was controversial. Its author, Barbara ChaseRiboud, an African American artist, novelist and poet, alluded that Hemings (1773-1835) an enslaved woman at Monticello lived openly in Paris with Thomas Jefferson and that she (one quarter European ancestry) may have produced at least six children with the widowed Jefferson----all while working as a nursemaid and caregiver to his youngest daughter.

Initially, Chase-Riboud was heralded by the literary public and her book became a best seller--- selling over two million copies worldwide. Moreover, the author had been encouraged by her editor (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) to write the book but later she was defamed by numerous distractors in the ultra-conservative and fallacious racial environment of the U.S in the early 1980’s. The author was accused of being dishonest, amateurish and incompetent-- those were the milder defamations. It was difficult for some to believe that one of the great founding fathers had committed such an act However, Chase- Riboud was later proven to be on the right side of the DNA that supported her theories.

A more recent book by Chase-Riboud, I Always Knew: A Memoir, is popular in art circles as well as with the general public. The unusual work is mainly composed of letters that she wrote (over several decades) to her mother back home in Philadelphia---while she lived abroad and met some of the most distinguished and visionary individuals on the continent. Chase-Riboud has resided in France for several decades --- initially as a student, then as professional artist living with her first husband, Marc Riboud----the acclaimed photographer and the father of her two sons. She later married the art publisher, Sergio Tosi.

Lastly, the 83 year old Chase Riboud, who earned degrees in art at Tyler and Yale, currently has a major exhibition of her sculptures in the US-- Barbara Chase-Riboud: Monumentale: The Bronzes at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Take a look at the link below to see how the multi-talented artist describes herself: