About the Painting

This content is courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Romare Bearden, Captivity and Resistance, 1976
collage of various fabrics on canvas
African American Museum in Philadelphia
© Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, N.Y.

The central theme is the 1839 Mende rebellion aboard the sailing ship Amistad. Prince Cinque, the hero of the battle, is portrayed at center holding a staff. At right is the ominous apparatus for a lynching, presumably that of John Brown whose spirit shadow hangs over figures representing abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Learn more about Romare Bearden at the National Gallery of Art website and visit the Romare Bearden Foundation.