The Babylonian Marriage Market


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.

The painting

The painting was inspired by a passage in the Histories by Herodotus, and the artist painstakingly copied some of the images from Assyrian artefacts in the British Museum. The composition is also influenced by Victorian painting auctions.
The painting made its public debut at the Royal Academy in 1875, where it drew large crowds and won widespread acclaim. The art critic John Ruskin praised the painting and highlighted the similarity between its subject matter and modern European marriage practices, which Ruskin thought were also mercenary and immoral.
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. Holloway's reasons for giving this work to Royal Holloway College are still debated by historians. Although the painting is usually interpreted as a faithful illustration of the passage in the Histories, Imogen Hart suggests that it in fact modifies and critiques Herodotus's description.

Borrowings and influences

The painting incorporated several designs known from ancient artifacts. The motif of a carved stone with handle, probably of Elamite origin, and found in a foundation deposit of the Sumerian king A'annepada, was reused in the decoration of the white platform at the center of the painting.
The silent film Intolerance includes a seven‐and‐a‐half‐minute scene closely based on this painting.