An Auction of Enslaved People in Richmond, from "Le Monde Illustré"

An Auction of Enslaved People in Richmond, from "Le Monde Illustré"

Bourcier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Roughly one month before the outbreak of the American Civil War, "Le Monde Illustré," a French weekly newspaper, published this wood engraving to illustrate an article about the auctions of enslaved people in the southern states. The print shows a public sale in Richmond, Virginia, the largest depot of the trade, besides New Orleans. The condemnatory article animates this "revolting market" by quoting the derogatory sales pitch of the auctioneer gesturing toward the young mother and child at right.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An Auction of Enslaved People in Richmond, from "Le Monde Illustré"An Auction of Enslaved People in Richmond, from "Le Monde Illustré"An Auction of Enslaved People in Richmond, from "Le Monde Illustré"An Auction of Enslaved People in Richmond, from "Le Monde Illustré"An Auction of Enslaved People in Richmond, from "Le Monde Illustré"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.