The sculptor and painter Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875) created a series of busts in around 1870, which he named "Why born a slave". This was during the height of his career when he enjoyed the patronage of Napoleon III. The city of Paris commissioned him to design the Fontaine de l’Observatoire, and although he was given the theme of the four cardinal points, Carpeaux replaced them with allegorical figures representing Europe, Africa, Asia, and America. While working on the representation of Africa, Carpeaux created the bust of the Négresse Captive, in which he aimed to express revolt through the woman's angled pose. It is said that the model for this bust may have also posed for Charles Cordier's "Capresse des colonies" in 1861.
Height:35cm