Why Born Enslaved!
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
modeled 1868, cast 1872 · Terracotta · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
While Carpeaux used terracotta for preparatory models, such as his clay sketch of the unidentified woman who posed for Why Born Enslaved!, the medium also had commercial applications. This bust was not sculpted by Carpeaux but was instead cast from a mold in his studio, which from 1869 onward produced copies of his major works as luxury consumer goods. The commercial viability of these reproductions reflected the popularity of antislavery imagery in post-emancipation France, where narratives of abolition evoked a sense of patriotism. This was particularly the case after the United States abolished slavery in 1865, seventeen years after the French abolition.
- Artist
- Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
- Date
- modeled 1868, cast 1872
- Medium
- Terracotta
- Culture
- French, Auteuil
- Department
- European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Credit line
- Gift of James S. Deely, in memory of Patricia Johnson Deely, 1997
