Why Born Enslaved? or Why Born a Slave? (French: Pourquoi! Naitre esclave? or La Negresse) is a life-sized bust by the French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux depicting a bound woman of African descent. Carpeaux executed versions of the sculpture in plaster, marble, terracotta, and bronze. It is represented in a number of museums, including the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen (marble, 1869) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (marble, 1873).

Why Born Enslaved?
ArtistJean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Year1867 (1868, 1869, 1873)
SubjectAbolitionism
LocationCleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Museum in Warsaw, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Petit Palais

History

edit

While the composition, modeled in 1868, debuted at the Paris Salon in 1869 and was reproduced in various media, the marble version was carved in 1873. Carpeaux added the inscription in French, "Pourquoi naître esclave?" (Why born a slave?).[1] The work was a preparatory work for the commission he had for the Fontaine de l'Observatoire, a fountain in the Jardin Marco Polo, south of the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.[2]

Carpeaux explored the theme of slavery in his artwork after abolition in France in 1848 and the end of the United States Civil War in 1865.

Versions

edit

Derivatives

edit

Why Born Enslaved is the basis for Kara Walker's 2017 statue Negress, which is a plaster cast made from the bust where the bust's face forms a void within it.[4][5]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Lugo-Ortiz, Agnes; Rosenthal, Angela (2013-09-30). Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-00439-9.
  2. ^ "Why Born Enslaved! in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  3. ^ Litt, Steven (April 17, 2022). "Cleveland Museum of Art buys powerful 19th-century French abolitionist sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, "Why Born Enslaved!"". Cleveland.com. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  4. ^ Kennicott, Phillip (2022-05-14). "One of history's most seductive and troubling representations of race". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  5. ^ "Negress". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
edit