Captive Slave. The Captive Slave is a portrait painted by the artist John Simpson, which was first exhibited in London in 1827.
It shows a man, manacled, on a stone bench and looking pensively or plaintively upward. Its subject matter, historical period, and mode of creation suggest the artist intended the painting as a statement against slavery.
Until acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008, it had not been displayed to the public for 180 years. The three-quarter portrait shows a dark-skinned man in orange-red open collar clothing, sitting on a stone bench, against a muted background, with the sitter taking up most the frame.
Large metallic manacles are visible around his wrists, which lie on his lap, and a heavy chain falls across the bench and out of the frame. The man is gazing up and to his left.
At its original showing it was entitled, The Captive Slave, and the viewer is informed of the sitter's condition as a slave by the manacles and by his dark skin, which connects him to the African slave trade. His clothes suggest somewhat foreign origin but also prison garb. The features of the subject show the man as a recognizable individual person. The painting is described as a portrait but also a hybrid with genre painting, as the name of the character in the painting is unknown. His aspect is saintly or heroic, imploring, vulnerable, and somewhat passive in rest, which allowed the
It shows a man, manacled, on a stone bench and looking pensively or plaintively upward. Its subject matter, historical period, and mode of creation suggest the artist intended the painting as a statement against slavery.
Until acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008, it had not been displayed to the public for 180 years. The three-quarter portrait shows a dark-skinned man in orange-red open collar clothing, sitting on a stone bench, against a muted background, with the sitter taking up most the frame.
Large metallic manacles are visible around his wrists, which lie on his lap, and a heavy chain falls across the bench and out of the frame. The man is gazing up and to his left.
At its original showing it was entitled, The Captive Slave, and the viewer is informed of the sitter's condition as a slave by the manacles and by his dark skin, which connects him to the African slave trade. His clothes suggest somewhat foreign origin but also prison garb. The features of the subject show the man as a recognizable individual person. The painting is described as a portrait but also a hybrid with genre painting, as the name of the character in the painting is unknown. His aspect is saintly or heroic, imploring, vulnerable, and somewhat passive in rest, which allowed the
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