Bocage translates to Shady Retreat. The plantation home was built in 1801 by I Marius Pons Bringier as a wedding gift to his daughter Francoise and her husband Cristophe Colomb, an alleged descendant of the famous explorer. Bringier, head of the wealthy and powerful Bringier family, owned several plantations along the Mississippi River in South Louisiana.

Francoise, at the time of her wedding, was only fourteen years old; her husband Cristophe was thirty-one.  Cristophe was quite a remarkable character: He was invalved in the French Revolution and escaped from his native country to flee the guillotine. His departure reportedly led him to his uncle’s island plantation in Santo Domingo, where a slave uprising forced him to flee again – this time to Philadelphia and then on to a French Louisiana.

Cristophe and Francoise’s relationship was very unusual for the time, but it was harmonious. Fanny, as she was popularly known, had inherited the Bringier aptitude for business, and ran the plantation. Cristophe’s talents, however, were in the arts: He was an accomplished singer, musician, poet, and dancer. The usual roles were thus reversed in this marriage. Fanny directed I the work in the cane fields and sugar mills, while her husband wrote poetry and entertained at their social gatherings. He even had a fancy boat built for himself, with a silken canopy and friezing on the sails. His slaves rowed the boat along the bayous and waterways, taking Cristophe to relatives and friends.

The two-story house itself is almost square, constructed of wood on the upper level and brick on the lower level. Its front gallery is supported by six large square pillars and a pair of smallish pillars at the center, forming a novel facade. A high entablature with Empire details hides the roof and most of the chimneys. After a fire in the late 1830s Bocage was extensively remodeled, emphasizing Greek Revival and Empire detailing. Bocage and many of its counterparts fell to decay and abandon after the Civil War. It was rescued by Drs. E. G. and Anita Crozat Kohlsdorf, who restored the home and gardens to their former glory. Their restoration included furnishing the house with elegant antiques. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Genre are the present owners; Mrs. Genre . is the niece of the late Anita Crozat Kohlsdorf.

For years the house has been open to plantation tours by appointment. It is located about two miles north of Burnside along the east bank of the Mississippi.

For more information on the Bocage Plantation visit the Hotel Monteleone.

In the 1830s the growing wealth and culture of New Orleans attracted a number of painters, mostly portraitists. One of the best known was the well trained Frenchman Jean Joseph Vaudechamp, who painted in the style of Ingres. Vaudechamp painted the leading citizens and their wives, and many of his portraits are in the Louisiana State Museum’ and in private collections. Two visiting Frenchmen painted memorable New Orleans pictures. One was Hippolyte Sebron, who painted the-best-known steamboat picture, Giant Steamboats at New Orleans and the famed impressionist Edgar Degas, whose Cotton Market of New Orleans is one of the prized possessions of the Museum of Pau, France.

In the 1880s there was an art revival in New Orleans. The Southern Art Association was formed in 1883 and soon had a membership of five hundred. In 1887, Ellsworth Woodward, himself a painter of no mean ability, founded the art department of Newcomb College. The Newcomb Art School flourished, and in 1897 Ellsworth and his brother William added and in 1897 EIlsworth and his brother William added a pottery department, which in the next two decades the Arts and Crafts School, 712 Royal Street, was founded, and for a number of years trained many artists. Courtesy French National Archives

The Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, opened in 1911, became the repository of several New Orleans collections-the Hyams Barbizon and Salon paintings, the Morgan Whitney jades, and the Howard collection of Greek pottery. WPA workers are seen here at the museum during the 1930s. Courtesy New Orleans Public Library

A handsome Greek Revival building locate in City Park, the museum for years was a kind of art mausoleum, and it was not until the arrival of its first professional director, Alonzo Lansford in 1948, that the institution took on new life. He and Arthur Feitel, the president of the Delgado board, secured thirty two Italian Renaissance paintings of the Kress collection, and paintings of modern schools began to appear on its (1958-1961), and its present director, James B. Byrnes, who came in 1962 under a completely reorganized Isaac Delgado Museum of Art Association, have done wonders in scheduling shows and in the acquisition of important works of art through purchase or gifts. In 1970, three large wings were started to more than double the size of the museum and provide a much-needed auditorium. This is how the expanded Isaac Delgado Museum of Art will look. Courtesy Isaac Delgado Museum of Art

One of the most fascinating objects in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum at the Cabildo is the death mask of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. It Was made by Francisco Antommarchi, who had attended the emperor in St. Helena when he died. Courtesy Louisiana State Museum

The University of New Orleans Ogden Museum of Southern Art is currently home to the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world. Located in the Warehouse District today next door to the WWII Museum. To learn more about the Ogden Museum of Southern Art read the Hotel Monteleone’s review.