Basic HTML Version
106
●
(ART.) [FITZGERALD, EDWARD].
The Slaves.
Contemporary oil copy of
Fitzgerald’s painting, 30x25-1/8 inches.The painting bears several small (1/4 inch) areas of
restoration, only visible under black light.They appear on the shoulder of the older slave
(male?), and on the cheek and chin of the younger (Female?) slave. Re-varnished at an earlier
time, otherwise in good, clean condition with an undisturbed surface, and clean linen canvas
back; on its original stretcher bars.
London, circa 1830’s-1850’s.
[60,000/80,000]
A RARE CONTEMPORARY COPY OF AN ICONIC IMAGE
,
ORIGINALLY PAINTED BYTHE ARTIST
AND POET EDWARD FITZGERALD
(
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM
)
(1809-1883). Fitzgerald’s
“Slaves” is one of several notable images produced during the period of intense activism to abolish
slavery in theWest Indies.The original was probably painted sometime in the early 1830’s, quite
probably before1833, when slavery in theWest Indies was abolished. “The Slaves” takes its place
as abolitionist art along with Phillip Simpson’s “Captive Slave,” (1828) and HenryThompson’s
“Boorum Slave (1827). It is said of the former work, thatWiliamWilberforce would place it along
side the dais during his anti-slavery addresses.The pleading, upward cast of the eyes of Fitzgerald’s
“Slaves” is particularly moving.This painting was so popular amongst the abolitionists that a
chromolithograph was made of it. Additionally, inventor-artist George Baxter made a number of
what he called his “Baxterotypes” of the image: a complex process, somewhat similar to the idea of
today’s “giclee.” A copy of one of these “Baxterotypes” was sent to the 1853 Crystal Palace
Exhibition in NewYork, where abolition was the theme of several exhibits. Only the year before,
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “UncleTom’s Cabin had been a runaway best-seller.According to Karen
Dalton, associate editor Harvard’s Image of the Black inWestern Art (Harvard University Press,
1979-2010), “three similar paintings were produced at that time (the 1830’s); one now resides in
Wilberforce House in Kensington-upon Hull.A print (presumably a Baxterotype”) also resides at
the British Museum. Provenance: personal collection of artist Merton Simpson.