On to Liberty
Theodor Kaufmann American
Before coming to the United States in 1850, Kaufmann studied painting in his native Germany and fought in the 1848 popular uprisings in favor of German national unity. As a Union soldier in the American Civil War, he may have seen Confederate troops retreating with enslaved men, leaving behind women and children. Here, his portrayal of a group of fleeing figures indicates the lack of a clear route to liberty. Kaufmann based his Civil War scene on an 1859 composition of a similar subject, set in Brazil, by the French painter François-Auguste Biard.
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