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Traite des Nègres (The Slave Trade)

After a painting by George Morland British
Engraver After an engraving by John Raphael Smith British
early 19th century
Not on view
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

Object Information
  • 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

More Artwork

More Artwork
The Bell Inn, George Morland British, Oil on canvas
The Bell Inn
George Morland
late 1780s
Piece, Cotton, copperplate printed, French
Piece
French
1800–1900
Pichhwai for the Festival of Cows, Painted and printed gold and silver leaf and opaque watercolor on indigo-dyed cotton, India, Deccan, Aurangabad (?)
Pichhwai for the Festival of Cows
India, Deccan, Aurangabad (?)
late 18th century
Landscape with Figure, George Morland British, Black chalk on off-white wove paper, laid on gray wash-line mount
Landscape with Figure
Attributed to George Morland
Former Attribution John Constable
late 18th–early 19th century
Cuirass, Coulaux Frères, Manufacture Royale d'Armes de Klingenthal French, Steel, gold, copper alloy, leather, French, Klingenthal, Alsace
Cuirass
Manufactory Manufactured at Coulaux Frères, Manufacture Royale d'Armes de Klingenthal
Designer Designed by François-Joseph Bisch
Decorator Etched and gilt by François-Xavier Bisch
ca. 1825

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