Location

201 French Neoclassical Painting & Sculpture

Fun Fact

Although officially abolished in France since 1848, slavery remained a hotly contested issue in Carpeaux’s time as it remained legal or tolerated in various countries around the world.

Description

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.

Provenance

1868–1875

Artist's studio, Paris

1875

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, by descent to Louis and Louise-Clement Carpeaux, the artist's children

1913

Louis and Louise-Clement Carpeaux, their sale, Studio J-B Carpeaux, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, 30 May 1913, lot 42, acquired by Stefanos ("Etienne") Eugenidi

1913–1930s

Stefanos ("Etienne") Eugenidi [1879–1957], France ¹

1930s–2017

A noble family, Normandy, France, from at least the 1930s until 2017

2017–2021

Private Collection, Switzerland

2021

(Koller Auktionen, Zürich, 10 September 2021, lot 1199, acquired by Stuart Lochhead Sculpture, London)

2021–2022

(Stuart Lochhead, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

2022–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, acquired from Stuart Lochhead Sculpture, London

Provenance Footnotes

¹Eugenidi was a banker, born in Greece, died in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is listed in the directory of the University of Paris of 1902. There is a portrait of him by Aimé Nicolas Morot [French, 1850–1913] in the National Gallery of Greece, Athens, donation of St. (Stefanos) Eugenidi.

Citations

Gautier, Théophile, “Salon de 1869: Sculpture.” Journal Officiel de l'Empire Français (May 24, 1869).

Atelier J.-B. Carpeaux: Catalogue de sculptures originales par J.B. Carpeaux. Paris: Galerie Manzi Joyant, May 1913. p. 9, no. 42.

Clément-Carpeaux, Louise. La Vérité sur l'oeuvre et la vie de J.-B. Carpeaux. Paris: Dousset et Bigerrelle, 1934-1935.

Honour, Hugh. The Image of the Black in Western Art, 5 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. IV, part I: pp. 259-61; IV, part 2: pp. 166-69

Poletti, Michel, Jean Baptiste Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Alain Richarme, and Alain Richard. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Sculpteur : Catalogue Raisonné De L'oeuvre Édité. Paris: Editions de l'Amateur, 2003. pp. 34 and 141.

Draper, James David, Jean Baptiste Carpeaux, Papet Édouard, Elena Carrara, Horner Nadège, Laure de Margerie, Jean-Claude Poinsignon, et al. The Passions of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014. pp. 163-64; 323

Murrell, Denise, Wallach Art Gallery, Wallach Art Gallery, Musée d'Orsay, and Musée d'Orsay. Posing Modernity : The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. pp. 43 and 187, no. 60.

Nelson, Ellyse, Wendy S. Walters (eds.). Fictions of Emancipation : Carpeaux's Why Born Enslaved! Reconsidered. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022. pp. 9-11; 14-27.

Robinson, William H. “Why Born Enslaved! The museum acquires a masterpiece.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 62, no. 2 (2022): 26-27. Reproduced: P. 27; Mentioned: P. 26.