 Edward Mitchell Bannister (born Canada, active
United States, 1828–1901) River Scene, 1883 Oil on canvas Gift of Mr. George P. Shea, Jr., 1986 (5605.1), with
conservation treatment supported by Patsi and Stephen
McClaran Among the leading artists of Providence, Rhode Island,
during the 1870s and 1880s, African-American painter
Edward Mitchell Bannister is recognized for his pastoral
landscapes influenced by the rustic subjects and poetic
pictorialism of the 19th-century French Barbizon
painters. Cows in fields, stands of ancient trees, and
quiet river scenes such as this one, evocatively created
with somber tones and loose brushwork, characterize
much of his work. Bannister's determination to become
an artist was reportedly intensified by a racially biased
article in the New York Herald in 1867 that stated, "The
Negro seems to have an appreciation for art while
being manifestly unable to produce it." Although he
seems to have been largely self-taught, his
accomplishments as an artist were such that he
received a first-prize bronze medal for a painting
exhibited at the 1876 Centennial International
Exposition in Philadelphia, and he was on the board of
directors for the Rhode Island School of Design. |