Focus on this artwork and explain the Context.
The artist, John Simpson, was a British portrait painter who studied at the Royal Academies, and was a longtime assistant of the portraitist Thomas Lawrence. In modern scholarship, Simpson is described as little known.  The painting was created on a used canvas that x-rays showed had previously depicted a stately home and another portrait; this reuse suggests that Simpson did not paint it on commission, which is how he made his living, but here he appears to have chosen the subject of his own volition. The portrait was displayed in London at the Royal Academy in 1827, and again in London at the British Institution in 1828; that year, it was also displayed at an exhibition at the Liverpool Academy.  Several contemporary reviews at that time noted the pathos that the painting evoked, and associated the painting with "radical" or "sentimental" abolitionist literature.
In the late 1820s, Britain was debating whether to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire. While Britain's international slave trade had been outlawed in 1807, the freedom of those remaining in slavery was still a pressing political question. Against this background, the production and display of the painting is understood as an effort to further the cause of abolition. Simpson included lines of William Cowper' poetry in the first exhibition catalogue: "Ah but! what wish can prosper or what prayer/for merchants rich in cargoes of despair". Reviewer Martin Postle concludes:Despite enduring critical neglect and eventual obscurity, Simpson was a gifted artist, capable at times of venturing beyond the parameters of society portraiture and his position as a studio assistant. And in one particular work, The Captive Slave, John Simpson produced a painting of iconic status, which can be regarded today as his masterpiece and as a worthy emblem of the aims and achievements of the Abolition Movement.
The model for the painting is thought to be the American-born actor Ira Aldridge. Aldridge was born a free negro and educated in New York, though he left the United States because of the lack of serious acting opportunities there for Black men. He went on to become a successful Shakespearean actor in Europe.
abolitionist Royal Academies abolish British Empire British Institution pathos New York John Simpson free negro Liverpool Academy William Cowper portrait international slave trade Black Martin Postle Thomas Lawrence Ira Aldridge London x-ray