Art Analysis: Slave Auction

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That really is a lovely painting (too bad the whole painting isn't shown), deserving of a proper citation. "Slave Auction" was painted in 1866 by French painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. It is currently at the Hermitage (St Petersburg, Russian Federation). Having traveled in the Middle East, Gérôme was familiar with the contemporary Arab slave trade and depicted slave markets in six paintings, set in either ancient Rome or 19th century Istanbul. For Gérôme, painting was a search for truth rather than a means of subjective emotional manipulation; he favored realistic, academic depictions of classical yet current topics, and decried the "decadent fashion" of the rising trend of feel-good impressionism.

In an age before photography, 19th

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