Discussing Bannisters Work

Bannister is a very good  Artist. As we see and have read he was a very religious man. This was not uncommon in the early 1700, 1800’s, many slaves were very religious.  Art for many religious men and women was a struggle, but they were God-fearing people. Just being in touch with God can make you a better artist.

Many African American slaves loved art and were very good at it. As you see here with Edward Bannister, his strokes are almost impressionistic, but they still lean toward the romantic fine art. Bannister ‘s style is similar to Claude Monet and Renoir, even though he may not have even heard of them. Monet’s earlier paintings started off fine, and then moved slowly toward impressionism. Sometimes I think it was because of his eyesight and age. 🙂

Renoir lacked  definition in his grassy background but  gave more detail in the foreground. This shows how he was competeing with many of the photographers of that time.

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See Renoir’s painting- look at the way his strokes are not well-defined.

Bannister’s strokes are also not well-defined.

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Bannister’s strokes are only giving you the impression of a landscape scene. He uses his foreground to give the impression of grass, which is opposite of Renoir but with the same effect.

Bannister goes even further into impressionism even though I am not sure he has even seen the style. The whole picture is playing with our eyes like a shutter on a camera.

He uses blocks of color to give the impression of leaves.

Below, Monet is using gobs of paint to represent houses,  the lake, and even the leaves on the trees. He is also closer to his impressionistic style he is known for.

The style, impressionism, was new and on the cutting edge in France.

What do you think? I would love some feedback.

Edward Mitchell Bannister

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African-American landscape painter Edward M. Bannister (1828-1901). Bannister was the first African-American artist to win national recognition for his work.

Edward Bannister was born in Canada and initially settled in Boston, where he worked as a barber while struggling to establish himself as a portrait painter. When he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1869 he joined an active artistic community; with two of his friends and colleagues, Charles Walter Stetson and George Whitaker, he established the Providence Art Club in 1878. He also became an instructor at the newly-founded Rhode Island School of Design. Bannister is best known today for his Barbizon-influenced landscapes, many of them in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. He won a first-prize medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 with his landscape painting, Under the Oaks. Wanting the painting to stand on its own merits without regard to his race or what he referred to as “sentimental sympathy,” Bannister had submitted it to the judges with only his signature attached. He created a sensation when he appeared unannounced before the awards committee to claim authorship of the painting, becoming thereafter one of the best-known painters in New England and the first African-American artist to win widespread acclaim. A relentless perfectionist, Bannister was known to destroy works he was not satisfied with, and constantly attempted to improve his technique. Today, his works are rarely seen grouped together.

Although Bannister’s achievements were eclipsed after his death when the vogue for landscape painting waned, he was “rediscovered” by a few serious collectors and historians in the late twentieth century.

Bannister lacked the resources and opportunities to travel to Europe to study with the recognized teachers of his day, as was customary for many aspiring American artists. Though he was largely self-taught as an artist, he was both a well educated and a highly spiritual man. He was greatly influenced by the French painters of the Barbizon school, whose works would have been familiar to him through exhibitions held in Boston and Providence. The frequently idealized depictions of peasants toiling in the fields and the serene yet majestic depiction of nature popularized by this school provided Bannister with a form of expression that he could adapt to his belief in the underlying spirituality and harmony “in all living things.” Many of Bannister’s bucolic landscapes were populated by cows and sheep and the occasional farmer or shepherd. Later, as Bannister sought to emphasize mood and the elements of nature, the prominence of both animals and figures receded in his paintings. Always, Bannister was concerned with the atmospheric effects of sky and clouds and their interaction with land and sea. His repeated use of a road or path leading through deep woods or across fields suggests a foray into darkness or a long, expansive journey. Though figures appear in some of his paintings, in others man’s presence in nature is only subtly indicated — by a rail fence, an abandoned bridge, or a small farmhouse tucked unobtrusively in a corner of the canvas.

Bannister worked in oils, watercolors, and drawings, including works which have recently come to light and a watercolor that was featured in

the 1901 memorial exhibit held in honor of the artist at the Providence Art Club. The evolution of Bannister’s style and the various techniques he employed are apparent in works spanning nearly fifty years of Bannister’s career.

Bannister’s grave in North Burial Ground, Providence, is marked by a rough granite boulder ten feet high bearing a carving of a palette with the artist’s name and a pipe. A bronze plaque also adorns the monument and is inscribed with a poem, which reads in part, “This pure and lofty soul…who, while he portrayed nature, walked with God”. Edward M. Bannister was the only African – American artist of the late nineteenth century who developed his talents without the benefit of European exposure.

 

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These studies are arranged so that  it would spark an interest of African American Art.

I want you to go and look up these artist and read as much about them as possible, come back and post your feelings and observations. Go and get the names of each painting, study them, know them like you know the Mona Lisa. Art is to be experienced  and enjoyed.

Robert Scott Duncanson

     

Movement, Style, School or Type of Art:

American Romanticism

Date and Place of Birth:

1821, Fayette, New York

Early Life:

Robert Scott Duncanson was among the few African Americans who

established a professional career as an artist during the nineteenth century.  He was born in Seneca County, New York to a Scottish-Canadian white father and African American mother. He grew up in Canada with his father, while his mother lived in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. In 1841, he moved to his mother’s home, which was not far from Cincinnati, then a burgeoning metropolis. He eventually settled in that “Athens of the West.”

Career:

Duncanson studied art on his own, copying the masters he admired. He was principally influenced by the landscapist Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School. By 1842, he exhibited his portraits and received many commission as a result. He also participated that year in an exhibition sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, but his family was barred from attendance because of their African American ethnicity.

Duncanson continued to thrive in Cincinnati as he became a much appreciated landscape painter with his views of the Ohio River Valley. In 1851, winemaker Nicholas Longworth (1783-1863) commissioned eight enormous murals from the artist to decorate the foyer of his Palladian style villa, Belmont. Today Longworth’s home is the Taft Museum of Art.

Mature Work:

In 1853, Duncanson was asked to illustrate Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and then, financed by the Freeman’s Aid Society and the Anti-Slave League, Duncanson departed for a tour of Europe where he discovered the French landscapist Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) and the craze for Orientalism.

Back in Cincinnati in 1854, Duncanson spent the next four years painting and collaborating with the African American photographer and abolitionist activist James Presley Ball (1825-1904) by retouching and painting over Ball’s photographs. Together they created the 600-foot long mural entitled the Mammouth Pictorial Tour of the United States Comprising Views of the African Slave Trade (1855).

When the Civil War broke out, Duncanson moved to Montreal and, in 1865, to the United Kingdom, spending most of his time in England and Scotland. He returned to Cincinnati during the winter of 1866-67 and remained there until his death. He died in Detroit at the age of 51 while preparing an exhibition.

Best Known For:

Duncanson is best known for his shimmering, dreamy landscapes that feature enormous vistas, most notably his two paintings entitled Vale of Kashmir, 1864 and 1870.

Important Works:

. Uncle Tom and Little Eva, 1853, The Detroit Institute of Arts

. Entryway murals, 1855, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati

. The Rainbow, 1859, Museum of African Art

. Fall of Minnehaha, 1862, Museum of African Art

. Vale of Kashmir, 1864, Museum of African Art

. Vale of Kashmir, 1870, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York

Date and Place of Death:

December 21, 1872, Detroit, Michigan

Sources:

Driskell, David C. Two Centuries of Black American Art.
Los Angeles and New York: Los Angeles County Museum and Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.

Sims, Lowery Stokes. African American Art: 200 Years.
New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2008.

Ketner II, Joseph D. The Emergence of an African American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821-1872.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993.

Although Hudson River style landscape painting is most associated with Robert Duncanson, his floral still lifes first brought him recognition.  He is also thought to be the first black painter and muralist in America to earn his living by painting and to become internationally known.

                    

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/arts/duncanson.html

arthistory.about.com/od/names_dd/a/duncanson_robert_s.html

Artworks

  • Vulture and Its Prey (1844)

  • Portrait of Freeman Cary (c. 1856)

  • Landscape with Sheep

  • On the St. Annes, East Canada (1863-65)

  • Waterfall on Mont-Morency(1864)

  • Mount Oxford (1864)

  • A Dream of Italy (1865)

  • Vesuvius and Pompeii (1870)

  • Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine(1871)

  • “Blue hole”, Petite rivière Miami (affluent de l’Ohio), (1851)

Exhibitions

1842 Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, Western Art Union, Cincinnati, OH

1843 Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary, Western Art union, Cincinnati, OH

1864 Art Association of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

1865 Art Association of Montreal, Canada Dublin Exhibition, Ireland

1871 Western Art Gallery, Detroit, MI

1943 Balmoral Castle, Scotland, Museum of Modern Art, NY

1953 Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

1955 Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH

1961 Indianapolis Museum of Art Indianapolis, IN

1967 Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

1970 La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA

1971 Bowdoin College, Museum of Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME

1972 Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH

1972 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA

1976 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

1979 Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

1983 National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.

1992 National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.

1996 Washington University, St. Louis, MO

1999 To Conserve a Legacy- American Art from History, Black Colleges and Universities,” Studio Museum in Harlem, NY

2003 Then and Now: Selection of 19-20th Century Art by African American Artists, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

2009 Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Kahn, Eve M. (15 July 2011). “ANTIQUES; Condemning Slavery With a Paintbrush”. The New York Times: p. 24.
  2. ^ Public Broadcasting System, Pre-Civil War: Robert Scott Duncanson. http://pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/arts/duncanson/html
  3. ^ Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson. Black Master of American Art. New York: Zenith Books, 1972
  4. ^ Lifting the Veil: The Emergence of the African American Artist. St. Louis: Sayers Printing, 1995
  5. ^ a b c d e Lifting the Veil, 1995
  6. ^ a b c d Bearden, 1972
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ketner, Joseph D. The Emergence of the African-American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821–1872. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8262-0880-0
  8. ^ “Lifting the Veil” 1995.
  9. ^ Public Broadcasting System
  10. ^ Willis, Deborah. J.P. Ball, Daguerrean and Studio Photographer. New York: Garland, 1993. ISBN 0-8153-0716-0.
  11. ^ Pringle, Allan. “Robert S. Duncanson in Montreal, 1863–1865.” American Art Journal 17, no. 4 (1985)
  12. ^ Pringle, 1985
  13. ^ Boyd, Herb. Images and memories Galore at Studio Museum in Harlem. New York Amsterdam News 90, no.21 (1999)
  14. ^ Powell, Richard J. “Seeing and Thinking About the unexpected in American Art.” American Visions 14, no 1 (1999)
  15. ^ Powell, 1999
  16. ^ Bill Hodges Gallery.Robert Duncanson 1821–1872: Landscape, 1870. New York: Bill Hodges Gallery & Merton D. Simpson Gallery, Inc., 2003
  17. ^ Kleeblatt, Norman L. “Master Narratives/Minority Artists.” Art Journal 57, no.3 (1998)         Some information from wikepidia

Discussing Johnson’s art work

Johnson was a self-taught artist, but it does not mean he did not know enough to copy the style of that day, of Charles Peale Polk, John Drinker, Frederick Kemmelmeyer, Jacob Frymire, and Ralph Earl. If famous artist were getting paid to paint portraits in a  naive painting style or folk art style, Johnson may have also. The folk art style was done by  Ralph Eleasery and Whiteside Earl which was similar to the naive style .  There is proof that one of his clients, Rebecca Myring Everette, did want him to copy the style of Caleb Boyle who did an 1807 portrait of her husband.

Check each one of these artist and see if there is any resemblance. Johnson may have used this naive style of painting just by looking at a portrait. He uses muted colors for their portraits. I could not find anything for Caleb Boyle. However I did find a painting by Charles Peale Polk, and it is similar.

Polk’s painting is  very similar to

Johnson’s painting. Johnson does seem to be trying to capture the style of the day, if you compare it with this portrait.

Any way what is your opinion? Can you find any work by these  other artist? How do they compare?

Reasons by Sharon West

Why are you doing this particular blog on African American Art?

When I was small the only African or African American art I saw was in my Grandmother’s house. My Uncle was an artist but it was a well-kept secret from us. Not well-kept like someone was hiding it but well-kept because no one talked about it. My Grandmother had this beautiful wood carving about 24×17 on her wall. It was done so beautifully about Jesus Christ down at the water’s edge with his disciples, that I thought she bought it. She told me NO she had not bought it and it was done by my Uncle.

Well, I was floored I  had been around these people all this time and no one talked of his artistic abilities. I knew my oldest brother dabbled in art but he was in the AirForce and making a career of it. He wasn’t trying to be an artist either. It  all came down on me that day. My brother didn’t want to be an artist because he didn’t want to be poor and now neither did my Uncle.  (I was so wrong but I will talk about this later)

I thought this answered a lot of unanswered questions, 1) Why my mother never missed a time to send me on a school outing to the Art Museum. (even though sometimes we had no money for food, she would scrape that $2.00 together for the bus ride) 2) Why she did not think it was strange that I loved going when every one of my classmates hated it. (We went every year and I never tired of it)  3) Why she believed that one day I could be an Artist.

At the age of twelve is when I found this out about my Uncle. However, it had a strange effect on me. After finding this out I vowed never to be an artist. From everything I read and everything I saw artist were very, very poor. I wanted to be comfortable, not rich, just be able to pay my bills, eat, and have a nice roof over my head for a long time. I disregarded everything that had happened to me before (I will tell you later about the artistic road signs that were being placed in my life) and started to chart a new course for my life. I would be a Commercial artist. (Graphic Designer) I would be an artist that got paid, not one of those starving artist!

I realize now you cannot run from who you are, or what you are supposed to be.  God will have his way. I am many things and have to move in many ways but each one of those ways are me. I am an Artist, I am a writer, I am a political person, and I am  a  child of God in the body of Christ.

I’ve always thought about the Olympics when I think about my art. In the Olympic races you have Gold medal, silver medal, and bronze medal racers, but you also have those who come in dead last. When you ask that racer what happened; he can still say, “I was in the race.”   You have to at least acknowledge who you are to get in the race. 

I also thought, because this was 1965, and I knew of no famous African American Artist that (we) just didn’t become artist. Art was for other people. However, just four years later I was introduced to a piece of art work,  out of an encyclopedia that was painted by an African American. It opened up a door in my mind that I didn’t know was closed, because all thoughts about skin color and art  were unspoken even in my mind.

At that moment I wanted everyone to know about him , but I had no  platform. Now many people know about African American artist, even famous African American artists. However, I still have a burning desire to show, tell, and discuss that beautiful art. So I have picked this form to do it in.

As we go on to look at the art and talk about their history and even their techniques, I will reveal more about why I am doing this blog.

Johnson’s Art

African American Art History

Joshua Johnson was born between the years 1761 and 1763. Joshua was one of the earliest known African American artists and he was the first to earn his living as a professional portrait painter.  Joshua’s father was white and his mother was a slave owned by another man. Joshua was born a slave, however he gained his freedom at around the age of 19 in 1782.  George Johnson, Joshua’s father bought his son in 1764 and apprenticed him to a blacksmith with a provision that he be emancipated prior to his 20th birthday.

 

There were many free Blacks in Baltimore during the latter part of the 17th century and by the early 1800s, free Blacks outnumbered slaves by more than 2 to 1. Records of Baltimore’s African American community were sparse and loosely kept, however there are records held by the Maryland Historical Society that suggest that Joshua may have been apprenticed as a Blacksmith until his twentieth birthday.

It has also been suggested that young Joshua may have been apprenticed to Rembrandt Peale or Charles Peale Polk as his style of painting  is reminiscent of both Polk and Peale.

In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s it was fashionable for well-to-do families to have their portraits painted.

Joshua painted over 83 portraits; half of which included children. Joshua was very well known for his portraits of family groupings.

There are only 13 of Joshua’s works in public collections today. Nine of these depict families with their children and from the children in the portraits we can deduce the approximate age and time when they sat for their portraits.

The majority of Joshua’s known paintings are held by the Maryland Historical Society

and  the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Joshua Johnson died in or around 1832.


Sources: 
Maryland Art Society
Maryland Historical Society 

Continue with me on this journey