Why Born Enslaved!, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 1867
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, retratoJean-Baptiste CarpeauxFrancia, 1827–1875

Why Born Enslaved!

1867 · Sculpture

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¿Dónde está «Why Born Enslaved!» hoy? Museo de Arte de Cleveland, 219 19th Century European, Cleveland. Sí, expuesta ahora. Comprobado 29 de septiembre de 2026.

Museo de Arte de Cleveland

Cleveland, Estados Unidos

Sala219 19th Century European

Expuesta al público.

Comprobado
En este estado desde
Fuente
El museo

Sobre la escultura

One of the most powerful expressions of abolitionist sentiment in the visual arts, Why Born Enslaved! depicts an African woman bound by ropes and looking defiantly upward. The ropes press painfully into her breasts; her torn blouse alludes to the violence responsible for her condition. The original, polychromed surface is covered with complex, nuanced hatchings and subtle modeling. Evidence indicates that this masterpiece of 19th-century French sculpture served as the master model for numerous casts in other museum collections.

Museo de Arte de Cleveland

Ficha

Número de inventario
2022.2

En el catálogo

Fuentes

En la vida de Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

La vida entera
  1. 1866

    Made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour

    He is made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

  2. 1868

    Opens his own studio in Auteuil

    He opens his own studio in the Paris district of Auteuil (other accounts say as early as 1866) in order to reproduce his work and take on larger commissions; his brother manages sales. He multiplies his sculpture models in plaster, terracotta, bronze and marble, also using independent founders to cast them in bronze.

  3. 27 de abril de 1869

    Married: Amélie de Montfort

  4. 27 – 28 August 1869

    An inkwell is thrown at “The Dance”

    In the night of 27–28 August 1869 an indignant gentleman hurls an inkwell at the sculpture. It is soon cleaned, but satirical magazines are full of spiteful caricatures, and Prosper Mérimée fumes that savages are dancing the cancan before the Opéra, marvelling that the police do not intervene.

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En la misma sala · 219 19th Century European, Museo de Arte de Cleveland

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