The Captive Slave (Ira Aldridge)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
127 × 101.5 cm (50 × 40 in.); Framed: 167.1 × 141.7 cm (65 3/4 × 55 3/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
193664
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In the years leading up to the British Emancipation Act of 1833, this painting of an enslaved man constituted a timely abolitionist appeal. Set against a deeply shadowed background, the figure’s upward gaze suggests a yearning for freedom as he sits manacled to a bench. The composition echoes conventional imagery of Christian saints and martyrs; artist John Philip Simpson used familiar iconography to appeal to the sentimentality of wealthy white viewers with the requisite power to sway public po...