Slave Trade, 1791

Not on View

Medium

mezzotint on laid paper

Dimensions

plate: 48.2 x 66.5 cm (19 x 26 3/16 in.)

sheet: 48.5 x 66.5 cm (19 1/8 x 26 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Paul Mellon Fund

Catalogue Raisonné

Chaloner Smith 1884, undescribed

Accession Number

2001.118.62

Artists / Makers

John Raphael Smith (artist) British, 1752 - 1812

George Morland (artist after) British, 1763 - 1804

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left in plate: Painted by G Morland; lower center in plate: SLAVE TRADE / London Publish'd Feby. 1. 1791. by J. R. Smith. King Street Covent Garden; lower right in plate: Engrav'd by J.R. Smith. Mezzotints Engraver. To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; across lower center: lo! the poor Captive with distraction wild / Views his dear Partner torn from his embrace! / A diff'rent Captain buys his Wife and Child / What time can from his Soul such ills erase?
…

Provenance

Christopher Lennox-Boyd; (Nicholas Stogdon, Oxford); purchased 2001 by NGA.

Associated Names

Stogdon, N.G.

Exhibition History

2021: Afro-Atlantic Histories, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, 2021-2024 (shown in Washington, Los Angeles, and Dallas).

Bibliography

1884: Smith, John Chaloner. British mezzotinto portraits, being a descriptive catalogue of these engravings from the introduction of the art to the early part of the present century. 4 vols. London: Henry Sotheran and Co., 1884.

1902: Frankau, Julia. John Raphael Smith: His Life and Works. London: MacMillan and Co., 1902.