1893
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Dominant colour
Slave Market is a 1893 oil by Frederic Remington, a American Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a dim, crowded room where men in hats inspect a group of people lined up against a wall. The figures are blurred, but the tension is clear—hands grip arms, faces stay hidden. Remington painted this in 1893, when the U.S. was still debating slavery’s legacy. He wasn’t an activist, but the scene feels raw, like a snapshot of something he witnessed. The brushwork is loose, almost hurried, as if he didn’t want to linger on the moment. For more of this gritty, on-the-spot style, look up impasto—thick paint that makes scenes feel alive.
George F. Harding, Jr. (1868–1939), Chicago, IL; George F. Harding Museum, Chicago, no. 402, by 1982 [copy of incoming receipt, RX13605 in curatorial object file]; transferred to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1982.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings and Bronzes by Frederic Remington Lent by the George F. Harding Museum , June 21–Oct. 10, 1969, as The Slave Market .
Henry M. Stanley, "Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa," Harper's New Monthly Magazine 86, no. 514 (Mar. 1893): 613–632 (ill.), as A Slave Market . Peter H. Hassrick, et al., Frederick Remington Catalogue Raisonné , accessed May 5, 2020, http://remington.centerofthewest.org , cat. 01677, as A Slave Market .
Read the full account in the museum source.
Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art.
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