Year 1875 (1875) Artist Edwin Long Genre History painting | Location Royal Holloway College Created 1875 | |
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Similar Moorish bath, The Slave Market, Queen Esther, Man Proposes - God Disp, The Awakening Conscience | ||
Royal holloway s curator dr laura macculloch discusses the babylonian marriage market 1875
The Babylonian Marriage Market is an 1875 painting by the British painter Edwin Long of young women being auctioned into marriage. It received attention for its provocative depiction of women being sold and its attention to historical detail. It was inspired by a passage in the Histories by Herodotus, and the artist painstakingly copied some of the images from Assyrian artifacts.
It is currently held in the Picture Gallery of Royal Holloway College, after being bought by Thomas Holloway in 1882, where it fetched a then-record price for a painting by a living artist at £6,615.
References
The Babylonian Marriage Market Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA