Traite des Nègres (The Slave Trade)
Frederic Feldtrappe produced this textile in the early nineteenth century during a moment of intense debate in France over the viability and morality of the slave trade. Of the four narrative scenes, two reference earlier paintings by English artist George Moreland and contrast the brutality of European slave traders with the kindness of Africans who minister to a shipwrecked European family. The other two scenes, based on engravings by Frenchman Nicolas Colibert, juxtapose a happy African family with the appearance of European traders in Africa. Their cache of trade goods (including textiles) ominously foreshadows the horrors of the traffic in human beings.
Artwork Details
- Title: Traite des Nègres (The Slave Trade)
- Designer: Designed by Frédéric Etienne Joseph Feldtrappe (1786–1849)
- Artist: After a painting by George Morland (British, London 1763–1804 London)
- Engraver: After an engraving by John Raphael Smith (British, baptized Derby 1751–1812 Doncaster) after G. Morland, published in London in 1791
- Date: early 19th century
- Culture: French, Alsace
- Medium: Cotton, roller printed
- Dimensions: Overall: 101 × 33 in. (256.5 × 83.8 cm)
- Classification: Textiles-Printed
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1926
- Object Number: 26.189.2
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Félix Aubert
Scheurer, Lauth & Cie.
1897–98
Multiple artists/makers
designed 1805, woven 1808–11
French, Alsace
ca. 1820
French, Alsace
early 19th century
French, Alsace
1825–30
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