Rape of the negro girl

Christiaen van Couwenbergh’s painting presents an interior scene lit from the left in a tense, narrative moment. A pale, shirtless man in white drapery enters and points toward a central group—the light-skinned woman seated with a dark-skinned man, while a third figure behind them raises an arm—creating a strong triangular composition around the bed. The work is rendered in a Dutch Baroque manner with vigorous brushwork, muscular, naturalistic figures, and a warm palette of browns, ochres, and flesh tones, using chiaroscuro to heighten drama and psychological tension.