Why Born Enslaved!
Why Born Enslaved! or Why Born a Slave? (French: Pourquoi! Naitre esclave! or La Negresse) is a life-sized marble bust by the French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux depicting a bound woman of African descent.
| Why Born Enslaved! | |
|---|---|
| Why Born a Slave? | |
 | |
| Artist | Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux  |
| Year | 1873 |
| Medium | marble |
| Collection | Metropolitan Museum of Art, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts |
| Accession No. | 2019.22 |
| Identifiers | The Met object ID: 824469 |
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. A 1868 bronze version titled The Negress is in the permanent collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
See also
- The Negress bronze sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.
- Fontaine de l'Observatoire
References
- Lugo-Ortiz, Agnes; Rosenthal, Angela (2013-09-30). Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-00439-9.
- "Why Born Enslaved! in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-12-04.
External links
- Why Born Enslaved! (modeled 1868, carved 1873) - marble version at The Met Museum
- Why Born Enslaved! (1872) - terra cotta version at The Met Museum
- Woman of African Descent (1868) - plaster with patina version at the Brooklyn Museum
- The Four Parts of the World Holding the Celestial Sphere - fountain and sculpture in Paris for which Why Born Enslaved! served as a model