6
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) [MORLAND, GEORGES]
The Slave Trade.
A contemporary oil copy of George Morland’s famous work, 30 x 44
3
⁄
4
inches; re-stretched
and framed. Reverse of the canvas shows early signs of damp staining, not affecting the
image.
Great Britain, circa 1791-1800
[30,000/40,000]
A RARE CONTEMPORARY OIL COPY OF GEORGE MORLAND
’
S FAMOUS ANTI
-
SLAVERY
PAINTING
.
George Morland (1763-1804) was actually best known for his pastoral scenes of
farms and pastures. But in 1788, with strong anti-slavery sentiment growing throughout the
British Isles, Morland produced this extraordinary painting. He originally titled it “Execrable
Human Traffic.” The scene of an African man torn from his family by European slavers
became the model for John Rafael Smith’s 1791 engraving “Slave Trade.” That work
appeared in both tinted and black and white versions. The same year that this was painted,
Morland produced another work of the same size, showing a group of ship-wrecked Europeans
being treated well by African natives. “The Slave Trade” appeared the same year that William
Wilberforce made his presentation of “An Abstract of the Evidence” before Parliament, the
“Evidence” that included the now famous image of the lower decks of a slave ship. The present
oil, and the subsequent mezzotints are discussed and depicted in “The Image of the Black in
Western Art, volume 4, pages 66-71 (Harvard University Press, 1989) and “Blind Memory,”
by Marcus Wood, pages 36-38 (Manchester University Press, 2000). Provenance, private collection.
