Gallery Talk: Beneath the Surface of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s Why Born Enslaved!

Name: Gallery Talk: Beneath the Surface of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s Why Born Enslaved!
Start: 2025-08-15T12:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-08-15T13:00:00-04:00
Location: Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138

Schedule

Fri Aug 15 2025 at 12:30 pm to 01:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138 | Cambridge, MA

Join us for a close look at a painted plaster version of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s 1868 sculpture Why Born Enslaved!, which is on display for the first time in the exhibition The Solomon Collection: From Dürer to Degas and Beyond (May 24–August 17, 2025). Conservator Susan Costello and exhibition curator Marina Kliger will discuss the bust’s conservation treatment and its mysterious origins.
The Solomon Collection: Dürer to Degas and Beyond celebrates a significant recent bequest to the Harvard Art Museums from passionate collectors Arthur K. and Mariot F. Solomon. The exhibition spotlights over 135 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints by some of the most significant artists from the Renaissance to the 20th century, and offers visitors an intimate view into the highly personal yet inherently collaborative nature of art collecting.
Led by:
Susan Costello, Conservator of Objects and Sculpture, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies
Marina Kliger, Rousseau Curatorial Fellow in European Art, Division of European and American Art
Please check in with museum staff at the Visitor Services desk in the Calderwood Courtyard to request to join the gallery talk. Space is limited, and talks are available on a first-come, first-served basis; no registration is required.