The Museum of the Mississippi Delta will unveil a newly commissioned portrait of city and county namesake Greenwood Leflore on Monday.
Well-known Greenwood artist Equen Rhodes painted the new portrait, using a familiar older image of Leflore as a basic model, but fleshing out the 19th century Choctaw chief’s face with more life and nuance than has been seen before.
Museum Executive Director Cheryl Thornhill said the portrait unveiling is part of the museum’s commemoration of Mississippi’s bicentennial year as well as the 200th anniversary of Leflore’s marriage, at age 17, to Rosa Donley of Nashville, who had turned 13 that year.
“The idea for the new portrait originated when it was brought to our attention that Greenwood Leflore had been inducted into the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s Hall of Fame in 1996, and all they had was this little sketch of him,” Thornhill said.
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“The portrait of him we have in the museum was painted over a photograph. We had some funds, and we thought this would be a good way to spend them.”
A controversial historic figure among academic and popular historians alike, Leflore was best-known for leading other chiefs in signing the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which ceded the remaining Choctaw lands in Mississippi to the U.S. government, opening the way for removal of the tribe to what is now Oklahoma.
Under that treaty, Choctaws who chose to remain were supposed to have been given parcels of reserved land, but the government failed to follow through on that promise.
Leflore, however, was given a land grant as part of the treaty, increasing his holdings. He became one of the state’s most prosperous planters, was a state senator, was the owner of a large number of slaves and built an elaborate manor, Malmaison, on his Carroll County property, where he lived until his death in 1865. Family descendants lived at Malmaison until it burned in 1942.
A room at the Museum of the Mississippi Delta replicates a room from Malmaison, with original furnishings collected from Leflore family members. Thornhill said the new portrait will eventually hang in that room.
“Part of this came about because of a grant we received from the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area to upgrade the Greenwood Leflore Malmaison Room with text panels to explain the history,” Thornhill said.
Allan Hammons of Hammons and Associates is currently producing the interpretive panels that will be placed in the newly arranged room next year.
At Monday’s event, Thornhill will give a brief talk about Leflore’s life. Rhodes will follow with a talk about his process making the painting.
The image he had to go by was a “not too good” photograph of Leflore, Rhodes said.
“I did some period research about him, and about the clothing of the period to get it right and to try and make it more lifelike,” Rhodes said.
He chose to keep a black background, as would have been the custom of portraiture of the time.
The only adjustment Rhodes said he added was to “iron out” the rumpled clothing in the photo.
“Who knows,” he said. “He might have had a rough night the night before the picture was made.”
The unveiling and Leflore lectures are free and open to the public, starting at 2 p.m. on Monday in the Museum’s Community Room. Refreshments will follow.
Visitors are also invited to view the 24 Christmas trees on display in the Main Gallery, as well as a new art exhibit of more than 20 paintings by Mississippi artists in the small gallery in the front of the museum.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
What: The Museum of the Mississippi Delta will unveil a newly commissioned portrait of Greenwood Leflore.
When: 2 p.m. Monday
Where: At the museum, 1608 U.S. 82 West.
Details: Artist Equen Rhodes will speak.
