Why Born Enslaved!
{{Short description|Sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image = Metmuseum-carpeaux-why-born-a-slave-DT1017.jpg
| title = Why Born Enslaved?
| artist = Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
| subject = Abolitionism
| year = 1867 (1868, 1869, 1873)
| museum = Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Museum in Warsaw, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Petit Palais
}}
Why Born Enslaved! (in French: {{lang|fr|Pourquoi naître esclave?}}) 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).
History
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, {{lang|fr|Pourquoi! naître esclave!}} ({{lit|For what! to be born a slave}}).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lUqyAAAAQBAJ&dq=why+born+enslaved+carpeaux&pg=PA457 |title=Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World |last1=Lugo-Ortiz |first1=Agnes |last2=Rosenthal |first2=Angela |date=2013-09-30 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00439-9 |language=en}} 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.{{Cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1997.491/ |title=Why Born Enslaved! in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=2019-12-04}}
Carpeaux explored the theme of slavery in his artwork after abolition in France in 1848 and the end of the American Civil War in 1865.
Versions
{{Incomplete list|date=January 2025}}
- An 1867 polychromed plaster version, used as a master to cast other bronze versions of the bust, was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2022.{{cite web |title=Why Born Enslaved! |url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.2 |publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art |access-date=January 1, 2025}}{{cite news |first=Steven |last=Litt |title=Cleveland Museum of Art buys powerful 19th-century French abolitionist sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 'Why Born Enslaved!' |url=https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/04/cleveland-museum-of-art-buys-powerful-19th-century-french-abolitionist-sculpture-by-jean-baptiste-carpeaux-why-born-enslaved.html |work=Cleveland.com |date=April 17, 2022 |access-date=March 11, 2023}}
- 1868 bronze versions are in the permanent collections of the Indianapolis Museum of Art,{{cite web |title=Why Born Enslaved! |url=https://collections.discovernewfields.org/art/artwork/56494 |publisher=Newfields |access-date=January 1, 2025}} the National Museum in Warsaw,{{cite web |title=Personification of Africa |url=https://cyfrowe.mnw.art.pl/en/catalog/356635 |publisher=National Museum in Warsaw |access-date=January 1, 2025}} and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.{{cite web |title=Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Pourquoi Naître Esclave? |url=https://collections.discovernewfields.org/art/artwork/56494 |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |access-date=January 1, 2025}}
- An 1869 marble version of the bust is in the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (MIN 1671) in Copenhagen. In 1911 it was acquired by the Carlsberg Foundation from Eugène Plantié in Caen and presented to the museum.{{cite web |title=Negerinde |url=https://www.kulturarv.dk/kid/VisVaerk.do?vaerkId=105643 |publisher=Kunstindex Danmark |access-date=January 1, 2025}}
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns a terracotta version (1872){{cite web |title=Why Born Enslaved! |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/208864 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=January 1, 2025}} and a marble version (1873).{{cite web |title=Why Born Enslaved! |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/824469 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=January 1, 2025}}
- Another version is in the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts.
- An 1868 plaster version is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.{{cite web |title=Why Born Enslaved! |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/149154 |publisher=Brooklyn Museum |access-date=January 1, 2025}}
Derivatives
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.{{cite news |last1=Kennicott |first1=Phillip |title=One of history's most seductive and troubling representations of race |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/05/14/carpeaux-met-exhibit-marble-bust/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=14 May 2022 |date=2022-05-14}}{{cite web |title=Negress |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/846944 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=14 May 2022}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Pourquoi naître esclave ?}}
- [https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/sculpture/commentaire_id/the-four-parts-of-the-world-2216.html The Four Parts of the World Holding the Celestial Sphere] - fountain and sculpture in Paris for which Why Born Enslaved! served as a model
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Category:Marble sculptures in Copenhagen
Category:Sculptures in the Cleveland Museum of Art
Category:Sculptures in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Category:Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art