The Sorcerer’s Slave 1877

Thomas Wilmer Dewing painted "The Sorcerer’s Slave" using oil on canvas, a technique that allows for the creation of subtle skin tones and textures. The painting's dreamy, hazy quality comes from Dewing's masterful use of the medium to build up layer upon layer of pigment. The artist pays close attention to the way light interacts with the nude figure’s skin, the rough stone walls, and the soft animal furs strewn on the ground. Dewing's technique is rooted in the academic tradition, yet he also incorporates a sense of delicacy, almost fragility. The painting's subject is an enslaved person, yet the painting appears to suggest the artist’s distance from any form of manual work. His careful brushstrokes conceal the labor involved in the painting’s production. This is not the art of the factory floor but rather a quiet scene removed from the world of industry. Understanding the materiality of the work and the artist’s labor helps us to move beyond traditional boundaries of fine art and appreciate the painting’s full meaning.