What is this painting called?

What's this painting called and who's the artist?

• I'd include a picture but I don't really know how to do that, considering I don't really know much about it. But I'll describe it as best as I can. I saw it at the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York City last summer with my dad. It's a painting of an African-American man (presumably a slave) sitting in a chair. He's not in the center of the painting; rather, he's on the left side. He's wearing a white shirt and a blue jacket and he's leaning forward in the chair with his arms on his lap, almost as if he were suffering from a stomachache or something, and he's looking straight ahead. His eyebrows are arched slightly, and there's a sense of fear and pain in his eyes. On the wall behind him hang several pieces of dirty, mildewy clothes. It moved me to no end and I would greatly appreciate if anyone who may be familiar with the painting could tell me the name and artist, please and thank you. :)

• Answer:

  Your description sounded familiar to me, but a detailed and careful trawl through the Met's site turned up nothing matching it. That doesn't necessarily mean anything -- not all of the Met's vast holdings are online -- but I'm wondering whether you might have seen a special exhibition, in which case the work in question could belong to another museum and was on loan. I suggest that you contact the Met's Paintings Department and ask for help. You've got a fairly detailed description to work with, and one of the curators might respond. What you saw could have been a print or drawing, or a pastel or watercolor, but the Paintings Department is a place to start. Scroll down, click on "Contact us," and add "Paintings Department" to the subject line of your e-mail. It will help if you can recall the exact date you were at the Met.