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The Fugitive Slave, plate 2 from Paul et Virginie

A work made of etching and engraving printed in yellow, blue, red, and black inks on paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of etching and engraving printed in yellow, blue, red, and black inks on paper.

Date:

1795-97

Artist:

Charles-Melchior Descourtis (French, 1753-1820)
after Jean Frédéric Schall (French, 1752-1825)

About this artwork

In Paul and Virginie, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre addressed the injustices of Mauritius’s slave system most openly in one early scene, which is the subject of this image: the children return a fugitive from slavery to her enslaver in the hope that their appeal will secure her pardon. The owner, shown with his cane raised in oath, assures the children that he will spare the woman, but they later discover that he did not keep his promise and the woman was brutally punished for her escape.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Charles Melchior Descourtis

Title

The Fugitive Slave, plate 2 from Paul et Virginie

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1795

Medium

Etching and engraving printed in yellow, blue, red, and black inks on paper

Dimensions

Image: 37.5 × 41.2 cm (14 13/16 × 16 1/4 in.); Sheet, cut within platemark: 41 × 47 cm (16 3/16 × 18 9/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Joseph Brooks Fair Collection

Reference Number

1926.479

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/28756/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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