The black canvas before Malevich: it was Paul Bilhaud
Alphonse Allais, *Album primo-avrilesque*, 1897, plate reproducing the earlier black canvas attributed to Paul Bilhaud; public domain. This is the printed reproduction, not the original 1882 painting. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Combat_de_n%C3%A8gres_dans_une_cave.jpg
Stories about a “black square” before Malevich often mix up two French artists. In 1882, playwright Paul Bilhaud showed an entirely black canvas at the first exhibition of the Incoherent Arts in Paris—33 years before Kazimir Malevich first exhibited his Black Square. Alphonse Allais was connected to the work later: in 1897 he reproduced it in a humorous book; he did not present the original 1882 canvas. The first exhibition took place at the home of its organizer, Jules Lévy, not at Galerie Vignon. The canvas’s historical title made a racist joke.