The Portrayal of the Negro in American Painting

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T H E P O R T R A Y A L OF T H E N E G R O I N A M E R I C A N P A I N T I N G

T H E P O R T R A Y A L OF T H E N E G R O I N A M E R I C A N P A I N T I N G

THE P O R T R A Y A L OF THE N E G R O IN A M E R I C A N P A I N T I N G T HE B O W D O I N CO LLEGE M U S E U M OF AR T

1964

C o ve r • Detail from Thom as Eakins • Whistling for Plover

C o p yrigh t 1964 b y The President and Trustees o f B o w d o in College, Brunsw ick, M aine

L E N D E R S T O T H E E X H IB IT IO N A D D I S O N G A L L E R Y OF A M E R I C A N A R T , P HI L L I P S A C A D E M Y , A N D O V E R , M AS S .

ANO NYM OUS LENDER MR. A N D MRS. C H A R L E S B E N T O N , E V A N S T O N , IL L IN OIS M U S E U M OF F I N E A R T S , B O S T O N B O W D O I N C O L L E G E M U S E U M OF A R T , B R U N S W I C K , M A I N E THE B R O O K LYN M USEUM M U S E U M OF A R T , C A R N E G I E I N S T I T U T E , P I T T S B U R G H THE C E N T U R Y ASSOCIATION, N EW YO RK CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY CINCIN NATI ART MUSEUM T H E C O R C O R A N G A L L E R Y OF A R T , W A S H I N G T O N , D. C. T H E D E T R O I T I N S T I T U T E OF A R T S E D W A R D E B E R S T A D T & SONS, N E W Y O R K E SSE X INSTITUTE, SALEM, M ASSACH USETTS G E O R G I A M U S E U M OF A R T , T H E U N I V E R S I T Y OF G E O R G I A , A T H E N S H A M P T O N IN S T IT U T E , H A M PT O N , VIRGINIA H A R M O N F O U N D A T IO N , INC., N E W Y O R K J O S E P H H. H I R S H H O R N C O L L E C T I O N , N E W Y O R K H IRSCHL & A DLER G A LLER IES, INC., NEW Y O R K THE H Y D E C O L LE C T IO N , GLEN S FALLS, N E W Y O R K K E N N E D Y GALLERIES, INC., N E W Y O R K M. K N O E D L E R & C O . , I N C . , N E W Y O R K MRS. HOKE LEVIN, DETRO IT, MICHIGAN M R . A N D M R S . B E R T R A M K. L I T T L E , B R O O K L I N E , M A S S A C H U S E T T S M A R YLA N D HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BALTIMORE MR. W A R D M ELVILLE, S T O N Y B R O O K , L O N G ISLAND, N E W Y O R K

T H E M E T R O P O L I T A N M U S E U M OF A R T , N E W Y O R K MILW AUKEE ART CENTER MR. AND MRS. R O B E R T M O N T G O M E R Y , N E W Y O R K T H E M U S E U M OF M O D E R N A R T , N E W Y O R K N A T I O N A L A C A D E M Y OF D E S I G N , N E W Y O R K N A T I O N A L C O L L E C T I O N OF F I N E A R T S , S M I T H S O N I A N I N S T I T U T I O N , W A S H I N G T O N , D. C. N ELSO N G A L L E R Y - A T K I N S M USEUM , K A N SAS CITY, MISSOURI N E W B R I T A I N M U S E U M OF A M E R I C A N A R T , N E W B R I T A I N , C O N N E C T I C U T NEW H AVEN CO LO N Y HISTORICAL SOCIETY, NEW HAVEN, C O N N EC TICU T NEW YO RK STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, COOPERSTOWN T H E N O R T H C A R O L I N A M U S E U M OF A R T , R A L E I G H T H E P E N N S Y L V A N I A A C A D E M Y OF T H E F I N E A R T S , P H I L A D E L P H I A T H E H I S T O R I C A L S O C I E T Y OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A , P H I L A D E L P H I A P H I L A D E L P H I A M U S E U M OF A R T PHILBROOK ART CENTER, TULSA, OKLAHOMA M R . A N D M R S . D E L B E R T D. R U C H , W A S H I N G T O N , D. C. M R. H E R M A N A. S C H I N D L E R , C H A R L E S T O N , S O U T H C A R O L I N A M R . V I C T O R D. S P A R K , N E W Y O R K SUFFO LK M U S E U M , S T O N Y B R O O K , LONG ISLAND, N E W Y O R K THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB, NEW YO RK THE V A L E N T I N E M U S E U M , RIC H M O ND , VIRGINIA V I R G I N I A M U S E U M OF F I N E A R T S , R I C H M O N D W ADSW ORTH ATHENEUM, HARTFORD, C O N N EC TICU T MR. A RNO LD W EISSB ER GER , N E W Y O R K W H I T N E Y M U S E U M OF A M E R I C A N A R T , N E W Y O R K W O R C E ST ER ART M USEUM, W ORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

f o r e w o r d

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D uring the last few years no segment o f our population has com e to play a more

eventful role in our national life than the Am erican N egro . For this reason and because o f the gro w in g interest in the history o f the N egro in Am erica, the B o w d oin College Museum o f A rt has organized this exhibition o f eighty Am erican paintings, spanning a period o f tw o and a half cen足 turies, in w hich the N e g ro is portrayed.

A n attempt was m ade to choose works for the exhibition which w ould represent as many different phases o f Am erican painting as possible, w ith special emphasis on pertinent examples by the leading artists o f each period. Because quality was the principal criterion in the selection o f pic足 tures, none o f that vast body o f prim arily illustrational painting, consisting basically o f anecdote and caricature, was included.

T h e great painters o f this land have not only made a vital contribution to our cultural heritage, but they have also been am ong the most sensitive and penetrating observers o f the life o f this nation.

This exhibition, therefore, is m ore than a survey o f the history o f Am erican painting devoted to a particular theme; it is a significant social document dealing with one o f the decisive issues o f our time.

A fter seeing these eighty paintings which, despite an occasional stereotype, are so predom i足 nantly an affirmation o f the dignity and individuality o f the Am erican N egro , w h o can believe that the scene depicted in the last picture w ill be the last chapter in the history o f the N egro in Am erica? m a r v in

s.

s a d ik

Curator

a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

♦ Since this exhibition was first conceived m any months ago more than

tw o hundred people have lent their assistance to help make it possible.

I should particularly like to thank Lloyd Goodrich, D irector, and Jo h n I. H. Baur, Associate D irector, o f the W hitn ey M useum o f American A rt for suggesting certain pictures and for provid­ ing inform ation about others. Miss Anna W ells R utled ge, w h o has made a study o f the portrayal o f the N egro in art over a period o f m any years, generously permitted m e to examine the portion o f her collection o f photographs o f this material available at her hom e in Charleston, South Carolina.

I should also like to express m y appreciation to the staff o f the Frick A rt R eferen ce Library for their kind co-operation.

I wish to thank m y secretary, M rs. Dexter P . R um sey m, for her efficiency in handling the extensive correspondence w hich this exhibition entailed and for her careful preparation o f the manuscript o f the catalogue fo r the printer.

For his brilliant introductory essay, I am profoundly grateful to D r. Sidney Kaplan, Professor o f English at the U niversity o f Massachusetts, a founder and form er editor o f The Massachusetts R e­ view, w h o is a leading authority on the history o f the N egro in Am erican life. I am deeply indebted to Leonard Baskin fo r his great interest in the exhibition and for his m agnificent design o f the catalogue.

For one reason or another, certain important paintings w ere not available fo r the exhibition.

C h ie f am ong these are: Jo h n Hesselius, Charles Calvert and His Negro Page (Baltim ore Museum o f A rt); W illiam Sidney M ount, Eel-Spearing at Setauket (N ew Y o rk State Historical Association); Eastman Johnson, O ld Kentucky Home (N c w -Y o rk Historical Society); W inslow Hom er, The G u lf Stream (The M etropolitan Museum o f A rt); Thom as Eakins, W ill Schuster and Blackman Going Shooting (Yale U niversity A rt G allery); George Bellow s, Both Members o f This Club (National Gallery o f A rt); and B en Shahn, The Welders (The Museum o f M odern Art).

For assistance in locating pictures and fo r supplying information, thanks are due Ja y P. A ltm ayer; Albert K . Baragwanath, Curator o f Portraits and Prints, Museum o f the C ity o f N e w Y o rk ; Philip C . Beam , Chairm an, A rt Department, B o w d oin College; M ary C . Black, Director, A b by Aldrich R ockefeller Folk A rt Collection; Arna Bontem ps, Head Librarian, Fisk U niversity; Anthony B o w er, M anaging Editor, Art in America; M ary Beattie Brady, Director, Harm on Foundation, Inc.; E d gar Breitenbach, Chief, Prints and Photographs D ivision, Library o f C on ­ gress; W illiam M . B rew er, Editor, The Journal o f Negro History, G eorge R . Brooks, Director, M issouri Historical Society; M ary Elizabeth C . Burnet, Museum Curator, National Gallery o f A rt; Helen L . C ard ; M arion S. Carson; Louise Cattcrall, The Valentine M useum ; Paul A . C h ew , D irec­ tor, T h e W estm oreland County Museum o f A rt; Charles D . Childs, Childs G allery; N icolai C ikovsky, Jr .; Elizabeth C lare, M . Knoedler & C o ., Inc.; Jo h n R ichard C raft, Director, Colum bia (South Carolina) M useum o f A rt; Jan e des Grange, Director, Suffolk M useum ; George E . D ix , Durlacher B ro s.; Louisa Dresser, Curator o f the Collection, W orcester A rt M useum ; D avid C .

Driskell, Departm ent o f Art, H ow ard U niversity; Edw ard H. D w igh t, Director, M unson-W illiam sProctor Institute; Lindley Eberstadt, Edw ard Eberstadt & Sons; Ethel M . Ellis, H ow ard U niversity L ibrary; S. Lane Faison, Jr ., D irector, W illiam s C ollege M useum o f A rt; Stuart P. Feld, Curatorial Assistant, Department o f Am erican A rt, The Metropolitan M useum o f A rt; Gayle Fitzgerald, Sec­ retary to Senator Edm und S. M uskie; Jam es Thom as Flexner; Joseph T . Fraser, Jr ., Director, Th e Pennsylvania Academ y o f the Fine A rts; E. R o b ert Gallagher, R egistrar, California Palace o f the Legion o f H onor; Henry G . Gardiner, Assistant Curator o f Paintings, Philadelphia M useum o f A rt; A lbert Ten E yck Gardner, Associate Curator o f American Art, T h e M etropolitan M useum o f A rt; W illiam H. Gerdts, Curator o f Painting and Sculpture, The N ew ark M useum; Ira Glackens; N oah G old ow sky; Paul L . Grigaut, Vice Director, Virginia Museum o f Fine Arts; Alan D . Gruskin, M id ­ tow n Galleries; G ordon S. H aight; Edith Gregor Halpcrt, Th e D ow n tow n Gallery; R ich ard B .

H arw ell, Librarian, B o w d oin C ollege; Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr ., D irector, Addison Gallery o f A m eri­ can Art, Phillips Academ y; N orm an Hirschl, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.; Jerom e H . Holland, President, Hampton Institute; Donelson F. Hoopes, Curator, T h e Corcoran Gallery o f A rt; Frank L . H orton; John K . H ow at, Curator, T h e Hyde Collection; Jean Blackw ell Hutson, Librarian, Schom bcrg Collection, N e w Y o rk Public Library; E . L. Inabinett, Director, South Caroliniana Library; L e R o y Ireland; R om an a Javitz, Curator, Picture C ollection, N e w Y o rk Public L ibrary; Frank N . Jones, D irector, Peabody Institute o f Baltim ore; Louis C . Jones, Director, N e w Y o rk State Historical Association; Jaco b Kainen, Curator, D ivision o f Graphic Arts, N ational Collection o f Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution; R o b ert Kashey, Thom pson G allery; Antoinette Kraushaar, Kraushaar Galleries; O liver Larkin; Abram Lerner, Curator, Joseph H. Hirshhorn C ollection; Jack Levin e; D r. and M rs. S. Lifschutz; Jean Lipman, Editor, Art in America-, N in a Fletcher Little; San­ ford B . D . L o w , Director, N e w Britain Museum o f Am erican A rt; Helen G . M cC orm ack, D irec­ tor, Gibbes A rt G allery; Garnett M c C o y , Archivist, Archives o f American A rt; D avid M cK ib b in ; Harold R . Manakcc, D irector, M aryland Historical Society; Jo h n M arin, Jr., The D ow n tow n Gal­ lery; Jo h n L. M arion, Parkc-Bernet Galleries, Inc.; M arcia M . M athew s; Thom as N . M aytham , Assistant in the Department o f Paintings, Museum o f Fine Arts, Boston; Jo an P. M ills, Associate E ditor, American Heritage-, G eorge E . Missbach; Agnes M ongan, Assistant Director and C urator o f D raw ings, Fogg A rt M useum , H arvard U niversity; Charles F. M on tgom ery, Jr., Assistant Curator, V irginia Museum o f Fine Arts; M r. and Mrs. R o b ert M on tgom ery; Alice M undt, Librarian and C urator o f Prints, W orcester A rt M useum ; C lyd e N ew house, N ew house Galleries, Inc.; H arry Shaw N ew m an, T h e O ld Print Shop, Inc.; Barbara N . Parker; Jo h n N . Penn, Manager, T h e U n io n League C lub; Carole M . Pesner, Kraushaar Galleries; W illiam C . Pierce; V ernon C . Porter, D irec­ tor, N ational Academ y o f D esign; Ju les D . P row n , C urator Designate, Garvan and R elated C o l­ lections o f Am erican Art, Y ale U niversity A rt G allery; F. G. R en n er; Jam es R icau ; E . P. R ich ard ­ son, Director, W interthur M useum ; Frederick B . R obinson, Director, Museum o f Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts; Christian R o h lfm g , Museum Administrator, Cooper U nion M useum ;

Gertrude Rosenthal, C h ie f Curator, Baltim ore M useum o f A rt; R u b y R ounds, N e w Y o rk State Historical Association; C liffo rd W . Schaefer, Collection o f Edgar W illiam and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; G eorge Schriever, Kennedy Galleries, Inc.; D avid W . Scott, Assistant Director, National Collection o f Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution; Frank Seiberling, Department o f Art, U niversity o f Iow a; Charles Colem an Sellers; Lester H oadley Sellers; Ben Shahn; R u th Shevin, A rgosy Gal足 lery; Herman D . Shickm an, Delphic Arts; W alter C . Sinnigen, M .D .; Huldah M . Smith, Curator o f the Museum, Essex Institute; Raphael Soyer; V ictor D . Spark; D onald Stephens; Elaine F. Thom as, Curator, C arver Museum, Tuskegee Institute; A xel von Saldern, Curator, Department o f Paintings and Sculpture, T h e B ro oklyn M useum ; S. M orton Vose, Vose Galleries, Inc; M aynard W alker, M aynard W alk er G allery; Louise W allm an, R egistrar, The Pennsylvania Academ y o f the Fine Arts; C la y W atson, Director, N e w Orleansjazz M useum ; Mitchell A . W ilder, Director, A m on Carter M useum o f W estern A rt; B en F. W illiam s, Curator, T h e N orth Carolina Museum o f A rt; Hermann W arner W illiam s, Jr ., Director, The C orcoran Gallery o f A rt; R . N . W illiam s, 2nd, Director, T h e Historical Society o f Pennsylvania; D onald A . W iner, D irector, Everhart Museum; W illis F. W oods, D irector, The D etroit Institute o f Arts.

A smaller exhibition devoted to this theme, in w hich twentieth-century examples were the most numerous, was held at H ow ard University in 1942 to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary o f that institution.

M . S. S.

N O T E S ON T H E E X H I B I T I O N

n o t es

on

th e

e x h ib it io n

♦ This massive collection o f paintings— only a partial sampling o f

the portrayal o f the N eg ro in Am erican art— gathered from far and wide, w ould be o f overw helm ­ ing interest (could he be revived to see it) to one Jo h n B ro w n R ussw urm , Bow doin , Class o f 1826, one o f the first tw o N egroes to graduate from an Am erican college. His degree in his pocket, R uss­ w u rm set out for N ew Y o r k , w here he founded our first N egro newspaper and named it Freedom’s Journal. Three years later he emigrated to Liberia. A s R ussw urm sailed from our shores his farewell w as a bitter one: “ W e consider it a waste o f w ords to talk o f ever enjoying citizenship in this cou n try.”

A bout a century later the N egro w riter R a lp h Ellison, having studied music at Tuskegee and sculpture in N ew Y o rk , began the prologue to his prize-winning novel with the fiery words— “ I am an invisible man.”

In the genial and ungenial faces and facades o f these eighty paintings o f Am erican Negroes, fro m the stereotypical slave o f the colonial M arylander, Justus Engelhardt K uhn, rendered in the international court style o f 17 1 0 [N o. 1], to Jack Levine’s expressionist Birmingham o f 1963 [N o.

80], w ith its five austere black gladiators facing the filthy Cerberus o f w hite terror; in the act and pose o f black men and w om en at rest and at w ork, in struggle and in play, from the quiet gentleman o f 180$ b y the N egro Joshua Johnston [N o. 8] to the brooding migrants o f 1940 b y the N egro muralist, Jaco b Lawrence [N o. 72], there is revealed, w ith varyin g aim and insight, the efforts o f som e sixty artists, white and black, som e-of them famous in our annals, some anonym ous or lost names, to grapple with a question and an im age that have been at the center o f Am erican life.

T o determine how often the canvas exposes the N egro as human being, as visible citizen rather than as m ask; to discover how often the artist him self has been conscious o f the mask or has been its deft and w illin g creator, m ay be, I suggest, a rewarding exercise for the view er o f these pictures.

T o com m ent here, how ever briefly, on all these w orks, in their splendid range and variety, each o f them w o rth y in some w a y o f hanging in a gallery o f art (each also a pointed social document, w hatever the intention o f the artist), w ould be to attempt a history o f Am erican painting and Am erican life. Thus these random notes on the exhibition.

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T h e earliest im age— a tenacious one— m ay be seen in K uhn ’s Henry Darnall I I I [N o. 1] , as a mask o f adoring servility, which the Germ an-born artist, him self fo r twenty years a servant o f the slaveo w n in g gentry, did not care to pierce. Against a backdrop o f formal gardens, a black houseboy, dressed as a page to show the rank o f his master (the b o w and arrow , too, are a sym bol o f com ­ m and), gazes tenderly at a childishly arrogant face, w hich looks aw ay. Separated, quite properly, fro m the young aristocrat by a m arble balustrade, the slave, like a retrieving beagle, offers him the bird. (Jefferson, w ho knew , once w rote that the essence o f slavery was “ the perpetual exercise o f the m ost boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submis­

sions on the other.” ) In a com panion piece, H enry’s sister, Eleanor, preens against the same back­ drop while a pet dog replaces the pet slave.

W hen, after fifty years had passed, Jo h n Hesselius, a country gentleman o f the same colony, painted the bo y Charles Calvert,* descendant o f the first Lord Baltim ore, he repeated K uhn ’ s pattern even to the obsequious tilt o f the black page’s head and the eyes that never meet. Observe that tilt— after the Declaration o f Independence— in the black nurse o f The Paine Brothers [N o. 4] by an un­ know n V irginia prim itive; again, in R alp h Earl’s Gentleman with Negro Attendant [N o. 5] w here the bright eyes o f the “ pampered” black, matching the glittering coins on the Connecticut squire’s coats, proclaim the fact o f property; once again, in housepainter and limner W inthrop Chandler’ s overmantel panel [N o. 3], paid for b y N ew England gentry, w here the red-turbaned black groom looks backward at his white masters.

H o w could these painters, north and south, dominated b y the class-formula o f Sir G odfrey K neller’s factory, create otherwise in a milieu in which the artist Gustavus Hesselius, father o fjo h n , beat his N egro “ in a passion” — confessing to his church that he was “ uneasy” about it; in which Jo h n Smibert o f Boston, advertising for his runaway slave Cuffce, form erly a sailor— a “ w ellshaped N egro, leather breeches stain’d with divers sorts o f paints” — threatened with the law any sea captain w ho m ight give his property a berth? (Peter Paul Rubens, a century earlier, in a place w here slavery did not fog m en’s eyes, hired a N egro sailor to w ork for him, and then gave his m ag­ nificent head to one o f the Three M agis.)

R arely in the colonial time did the painter even start to see the man behind the masquerade.

Sheer miracle that in those early days a few Negroes, transcending their caste, began to paint canvas rather than fences. T o Scipio M oorehead, “ a young African painter,” Phillis W heatley, ex­ slave o f Boston, “ on seeing his w orks” in the 1770s, w rote lines o f praise. The R everen d G . W .

Hobbs o f Baltim ore in 1785 composed a more than competent portrait o f his black friend, Richard A lle n * And Joshua Johnston, once a slave from Santo D om ingo, later “ frechouseholder o f color, limner and portrait painter” (as he is listed from 179 7 to 1824 in the Baltim ore directory), painted thirty portraits o f M aryland families o f quality (a curious reversal o f the mask) show ing them, in the homespun style, as they wished to imagine themselves— w ell-bred and charming. Is it scrutiny too curious to see injohnston’ s unnamed N egro cleric(?) o f this exhibition [N o. 8] a slightly w arm er rapport than he achieved w ith the distant white faces o f his regular patrons?

M ore successful in im parting a sense o f the living man w ere three ofjohnston’s w hite coevals— the itinerant D o w n East painter Jerem iah Hardy (a pupil o f Samuel Morse), whose broad-brow ed, w eigh ty head o f Abraham Hanson [N o. 1 1 ] is confident and w itty w ithout genteel or minstrel dis­ guise; the humanist Charles W illson Peale, whose Yarrow Mamout [N o. 9], with his shrewd, quizzi­ cal face— no U ncle T o m — insists he is no caricature; and Jo h n Singleton Copley, in w hose Watson and the Shark [N o. 2], during this early period, the black man, in the hands o f a great painter, got *indicates a picture not in the exhibition.

his equal rights. A t the apex o f C o p ley ’s w rithing triangle stands a man w ithout a mask, humanity in his face and m otion. T h e life-line, w hich bisects and unites the picture, coils dow n from his black hand to the anguished w hite arm o f W atson am ong the sharks. (It is a life-line, too, a Siamese liga­ ture, that M elville w ill invent, am ong the other symbols o f Moby Dick, to link brow n Queequeg to w hite Ishmael.) *

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The style o f the N egro artist Joshua Johnston is that o f the self-taught Am erican painter. Portraits in the same manner populated the middle h a lf o f the nineteenth century w ith thousands o f lively and lifeless faces. Seven artists o f this hom egrow n school, four w ithout names, form an interesting group.

A aron D arling’s C iv il W ar portraits o f a distinguished N egro couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Jones o f Chicago [N os. 40 & 4 1], are m ore sensitive and sophisticated than Johnston’ s stiffer likenesses (D arling had seen C o p ley ’s), not so much perhaps in the complacent set o f the husband’s generous visage as in the grave, open features o f his w ife— both sure o f their rightful place in a society being torn apart to make m en free. In the Three Sisters o f the Coplan Family [N o . 32], W illiam M atthew Prior— M illerite, possible abolitionist and practicer o f the flat likeness— seems to hark back before Johnston to recapture the w ide-eyed charm o f the children o f the Freake limner, although tw o faces b y nameless artists o f the school o f Prior, William Whipper [N o. 13 ] and The Lady in a Fine Scfl//[N o. 17 ], while asserting their status in earrings, watch-chains and rings, em erge only thinly as flesh and blood. M ore vibrant w ith life and craft are seated Thomas Bronk [N o. 3 1 ] , a whiteheaded Abraham Hanson, hand firm ly on cane, his sure m outh and sage air the tokens o f a life w ell spent, and James Armistead Lafayette [N o. 10], painted crudely but vigorously b y Jo h n B . Martin.

A ll these are plain. N o t so plain, but fascinating and mysterious, is an o il by an unknown prim ­ itive o f N e w Y o rk . W h at manner o f fam ily is this? The single N egro , silent and watchful, seems son rather than servant. Is it his brother w ho leers an antic com m entary? W h o are the members, indeed, o f this facetiously titled Enigmatic Foursome [N o. 14 ], w ho seem to come out o f Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! or one o f Charles Chesnutt’s novels o f miscegenation? *

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A beginning o f the difficult analysis o f the N egro im age in American genre o f the nineteenth century— I exclude H om er and Eakins, o f w hom something later— m ay be made in this collection.

Genre has traditionally demanded the detail o f verisimilitude and inclusiveness. W hat it in­ cludes o r excludes— and how — is often a key to the artist’s conscious or subconscious aim. Observe the process in three com m em orative landscapes. A m ong the prim itively elongated people and trees o f G eorge R o p es’s Salem Common on

Training D ay, 1808 [N o. 6] parade tw o N eg ro families, as

fancily dressed for the holiday as their white neighbors. A small white hellion is dragged along by

his N egro guardian for die afternoon. The blacks here are an equal and interesting part o f the ani­ mated scene. N o t so in British-born Jam es G oo d w yn C lo n n ey’s Militia Training [N o. 25] o f 18 4 1, in w hich the N egro dancers are the central focus, but w here the plethora o f anecdote and type is designed sim ply to set the stage for a minstrel show— even a black dog is about to dance and the end-men, already in place, have o n ly to apply the burnt cork. Years later, in W illiam Aiken W alk­ er’s The Bombardment o f Fort Sumter [N o. 37], tw o pairs o f N egroes have been carefully positioned to give sym m etry to a line o f figures. Am usingly enough, w h ile all the whites, quite naturally, face the cannonading across the sea, the N egroes turn their backs on the scene. W as it to show us that their faces are black?

For W alker the N eg ro was a genre prop. Is he anything m ore than a prop in tw o other semihistorical canvases? In R ichard C aton W oodville’ s War N ew s from Mexico [N o. 27] and W illiam Sidney M ount’s California News [N o. 20]— not M ount’s best w ork— the N egro is “ included,” it w ould appear, fo r the sake o f local color, o f pseudoveritist balance, for neither artist really knows w hat to do w ith him. T h e grotesque urchin in the corner o fW o o d v illc ’s picture is there apparently to give length to a colum n, w hile M ount’s smiling black freeman is a vacuous wallflow er. T h e mar­ ginal placing o f the N egro in such scenes is almost a form ula o f the day, which W oodville, in fact, repeats in his The Sailor s Wedding.* George Caleb Bingham , both in his much-reproduced The Verdict o f the People* and County Election* just manages to include the N egro— first g ayly pushing a wheelbarrow , then gayly serving a drink to a w hite politician— but only barely, on the edge o f the canvas. (In the first version o f his The Jo lly Flatboatmen* the N egro is absent; returning from Diisscldorf, Bingham added a happy black.)

So much o f w hat m ay be called “ N egro genre” shows such carefree, joyou s blacks— one w on ­ ders w h y Frederick Douglass fled M aryland to the N orth, or w h y the Underground did not go bankrupt like a modern railroad. N ote Thomas W aterm an W o o d ’s Moses— the Baltimore News Vendor [N o. 33], w ho not only peddles papers but minstrelizes, because he is so happy— for white delight. A fter w o rk w ill he d o ff his costume and return to Eastman Johnson’s Old Kentucky H om e* later to pat Ju b a with C urrier and Ives’s Darktown Comics? (Com pare W o o d ’s Moses w ith Francis Coates Jones’s dour, hard-handed N eg ro with the basket [N o. 62], another kind o f peddler, not naturized into the pretty foliage all about him ; or w ith H orace Bonham ’s three N egro w orkin g­ men [N o. 50], enraptured b y the finish at the cockpit— the most genuine faces in the crow d.) And w hat o f R ichard N orris B ro o k e’s Pastoral Visit [N o. 58], patronization in its every brushstroke: the patriarchal “ darky” preacher— i f not Uncle T o m then U ncle R em us— the peasant fam ily, the ubiquitous banjo. (I have seen only one other picture b y B ro oke— a chivalric troop o f Confederates lacrimosely folding aw ay their defeated flag.)

The line between condescending sentimentality and objective sensibility is often a tenuous one.

On w hat side o f the line is E . L . H en ry’s Sharpening the Saw [N o. 6 1], in which the black b o y’s back is only slightly m ore im portant than H enry’s genre jun k? If, as O liver Larkin holds, Irish-born

Thomas Hovenden, a teacher o f R o b e rt Henri, erred too often in his domestic scenes by “ leaving nothing to the im agination,” in the ebony Victorian Venus and musing father o f H ovcndcn’s Their Pride [N o. 57], lighted like a Verm eer, one forgets the cluttery ambience and remembers that Hovenden had been inspired b y W hittier’ s famous verse to paint The Last Moments o f John Brown * *

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H ow did the black im age fare in the century’s genre o f the oppressed?

Here are tw o Slave Markets, both presumably abolitionist in sentiment— one by an unknown painter [N o. 28], the other by the visiting Englishm an, E y re C ro w e [N o. 29]. W hich portrays a truer im age o f the crim e o f slavery? O n the steps o f the Planter’ s Hotel a “ tragic octoroon” is being sold on the block; w hile a bestial slave trader wields his w hip on the bare back o f a beauteous black girl, an obese buyer fingers the skull o f her child about to be torn from her arms— and more. T h e “ types” o f the oppressed are all present— but the outcom e is a dead illustration for an antislavcry potboiler b y a goodheartcd author. E yre C ro w e’s N egro fam ily, on the other hand, sits quietly and nervously on the benches o f a R ichm on d slavepen, untouched as yet b y lash or obscene fingers.

Each N egro head is painted for its nuance o f character; the subtle differences o f familial resemblance are analyzed w ith love. T h e slave dealer w ho officiates in the rear reminds one o f the young C o n ­ federate officer, a decade later, in H om er’ s Prisoners from the Front* — he is no ghoul. His customers enter the door like businessmen. T o borrow Hannah Arendt’ s label fo r a later system o f crime, there is the “ banality o f e v il” in C ro w e ’s picture. A nd is not the suffering o f black bondage shown here m ore acutely because the sufferers have been painted m ore truly?

O r consider the case o f Eastman Johnson, w h o underwent a kind o f evolution in painting the genre o f the oppressed. A fter searching for picturesque topics am ong the Indians o f Minnesota, Johnson found fame, Jam es Thom as Flexner tells us, in the slave quarters behind his father’ s house in W ashington; his painting o f 1859 he called Negro Life in the South; “ popularly rechristened Old Kentucky Home, it became a national sensation” — corrupting, I m ay add, the sensibility o f the na­ tion. W hat a paradox— y e t perhaps not w holly an inexplicable one after one view s the mawkish sentimentality o f the N e g ro painter R o b ert S. Duncanson’ s Uncle Tom and Little Eva [N o. 30]— that, as Flexner points out, while Uncle Tom's Cabin “ was burning its w ay across the land, Old Ken­ tucky Home was the most celebrated picture dealing w ith slavery.” One can comprehend that mas­ terly piece o f finical fakery— a happy race in happy slavery— w hen one recalls that Johnson once exclaimed to a European country lass that it was an “ odd thing” for him “ to see such a pretty girl w orkin g in the field, and h o w nice and lazy she could live w here I com e from , w here all the girls do nothing but gro w fat and have black slaves to w ait upon them. . . . ” B u t the w ar apparently did something to Eastman Johnson. L o o k at his Negro Boy [N o. 34], absorbed in the flute, w h o has the aura i f not the m agical touch o f W in slow H om er’ s V irginia lad [N o. 44]. A n d w here is there a place in the O ld K entucky H om e for the bemused sybil o f Johnson’s

Portrait o f a Negress [N o. 36]— better than Elihu V edder’s Ja n e Jackson,* that inspired M elville’s great poem. In Johnson’s A Ride fo r Liberty [N o. 35], o f 1862, the old bric-a-brac has been swept aw ay. Even i f the hobbyhorse o f the escape is overloaded w ith too m any fugitives and the babe at breast is somewhat overdone, there is a conviction and form al pow er in this painting that all the picayune specificity o f the m ore fam ous piece fails to convey.

T h e same cannot be said, I think, for Thom as M oran ’s Negroes Escaping through the Swamp [N o. 38]. One has the sense that the well-intentioned artist, w h o was destined later to astound C o n ­ gress and the nation w ith his gargantuan canvases o f the Grand C anyon and the Chasm o f the C o lo ­ rado, was here m aking a vain attempt to w ed the genre o f the oppressed to the fashion o f the sub­ lim e landscape. Doubtless this can be done on canvas as well as M elville did it on paper when black Pip faced the w hite squall— and H om er’s The G u lf Stream* shows us that it can be done— but for M oran, the brave runaways, despite their highlighted centrality— w ere little more than an oppor­ tunity to elaborate swamp and forest. T h e fugitives, lost in society, lost in the swamp, are also lost in the painting. Cole, Durand, Kensett and the other grand names o f the Hudson and Catskill School are understandably missing in this collection, for w ho cares about sin in the free mountain air? But it is a happy thing that G eorge Inness, unconcerned w ith genre, is on our walls. Loo k w ith w onder at the almost hidden N egro (similarly lost?) in his soft and lyrical Sunset in Georgia [N o. 60]. The bent man walks slow ly, an idyll o f old age, w ith his bent branch. H e is only a few daubs o f the brush, but masterful daubs, recalling that girl in Inness’s Indian Summer, w ho shines like a moon.

N o w blot out the N egro in M oran’ s awesome wilderness— the picture has not been changed or hurt. D o the same in Inness’s great pastoral— the focus is gone.

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A few w ords on three pictures o f the mid-century raise some significant questions.

In 1864, w hen he was eighty-one years old, Thom as Sully, w ith a strength that w as foreign to his alluring, lim pid style, painted a memorable portrait o f E dw ard Jam es R o y e , fifth president o f Liberia [N o. 39]. R o y e ’s noble forehead, hopefully candid eyes and gentle, determined lips speak volum es about the future that the w ar was unfolding for the American N egro . S u lly’s Roye is a w o rth y com panion to his Andrew Jackson.

Nathaniel Jo celyn , born in N e w Haven in 1796, first w orked as a portraitist in Savannah, G eorgia. He was later elected a m em ber o f the Connecticut Society o f Fine Arts and an H onorary M em ber o f the N ational Academ y o f Design. His biographer tells us that he “ declined an election to honorary membership in the Philadelphia A rt U n ion because the Society had offended his anti­ slavery sentiments. H e w as always an ardent abolitionist. As early as 18 3 1, he made him self con­ spicuous at a tow n meeting by supporting a measure to establish a high school fo r N egroes in N e w H aven.”

D uring the summer o f 1839, four nights out o f Havana, fifty-fou r slaves on the Spanish slave-

ship Amistad rose up, executed its captain, and after sixty-three days at sea arrived o ff Montauk Point w here they surrendered to the American authorities. T h e Amistad case became a cause celebre o f the abolitionists, w h o hired R u fu s Choate to defend the N egroes against the claims o f the Span­ iards. T h e leader o f the revolt was Joseph Cinque, son o f an African prince, described by a news­ paper o f the time as a man “ o f m agnificent physique, com m anding presence, forceful manners, and com m anding oratory.” In 1840, Jo celyn painted from the life all these characteristics into his statuesque Portrait o f Cinque [N o. 16 ].

I have already mentioned the name o f the N egro painter, R o b ert S. Duncanson, w ho illustrates a problem — a white problem , perhaps, more than a “ N egro problem .” Duncanson, born in N ew Y o r k State about 18 17 , w ent to school in Canada and then studied painting in Scotland, England and Italy. H e w orked as an artist, w hen he was not livin g abroad, in Cincinnati and Detroit. He was a passable portraitist, a more than competent muralist, and was regarded by m any Americans as the best landscape painter in the W est. He loved and illustrated Shakespeare, Sir W alter Scott, R o b e rt Burns and Thom as M oore, interpreted Tennyson’s “ Lotus Eaters,” and did a Ruins o f Car­ thage. H e exhibited w ith great success in Glasgow and London, and numbered the Duchess o f Sutherland am ong his patrons.

That Duncanson w as not separated from the epic struggle o f his tim e m ay be seen in the fact that the A n ti-Slavery League sent him to school in Edinburgh and that he painted the portraits o f the abolitionists Jam es G . Birney and Charles Sum ner. In 18 52 he presented a large painting, called Garden o f Eden, to a Pennsylvania minister in appreciation o f that philanthropist’s “ munificent friendship towards the colored people o f Pittsburgh and Allegheny.”

T h e o n ly N egro he ever painted m ay be discovered in his Uncle Tom and Little Eva [N o. 30].

A ll these facts are draw n from the pioneering m onograph on Duncanson by Jam es A . Porter, w h o thinks Duncanson’s portrayal o f Uncle T o m is “ above mere stereotypic charm .” It is hard to agree. A nd the reason m ay be given, again in Porter’s w ords: “ . . . w hile there is reason to believe that as a colored man Duncanson must have suffered the harrow ing restrictions o f American race prejudice, one sees no idea or tendency bound up w ith his art that betrays the least bitterness o f spirit o r preoccupation w ith other concerns than those proper to painting and industrious selfcultivation.” Duncanson him self is reported to have said: “ I am not interested in color, only paint.”

In 18 7 1 he began to suffer the hallucination that his art was directly inspired b y the spirit o f one o f the old masters. D uring the follow in g year he was the victim o f severe mental depression. He died insane. *

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Th is is a good place to interpolate a few unsure w ords about W illiam Sidney M ount, w ho occupies his ow n niche as a painter o f the N egro . M ount’s finest achievement, his Eel-Spearing at Setauket o f 1845, n o w at the W o rld ’s Fair, is not, regrettably, in this exhibition. I f it w ere, it w ou ld be a jo y to

rem ark the poise and pow er o f its m onumental N egro country w om an w ho presides over water and fields. Her like had never before been seen on an Am erican canvas. N ine years earlier, in an­ other Lon g Island scene, Farmers Nooning [N o. 18 ], M ount had already made clear that he was really not greatly interested in painting the w hite physiognom y except, when necessary, as ancillary to the black. T h e N egro farmhand, dozing w ith such grace he must be dancing to the music o f his dream, is apex and focus o f everything else in this picture. M ount sketches perfunctorily one white profile and turns the other tw o aw ay from us. O ne wishes that he had also obliterated the tickling prankster, that ancient piece o f genre tom foolery, which, nonetheless, is an attempt to emphasize the black face.

It is the N egro genius fo r music (not uniquely black, fo r he painted more than one white mu­ sician) that M ount never tired o f exploring— as a youth he painted a Rustic Dance* w ith a N egro fiddler. Y et, I w ould submit, w ith varying success. In The Power o f Music [N o. 19 ], o f 1847, it seems to me, M ount painted an unvarnished N egro farmhand, not a picturesque peasant, as care­ fu lly and realistically, and as Am erican and true, as the barn door on which he leans. T h e anecdote is original, simple, subtle— h o w w e wish the m ore talented fiddler w ould take over! Y e t the anec­ dote is almost needless; the listening N egro can exist as pow erfully alone. He has the unencumbered pow er o f the eel-spearer at Setauket.

For reasons I do not m yself fully grasp, M ount’s m ore ambitious N egro musicians o f the 1850s do not m ove me h a lf as much. “ M ou n t painted The Banjo Player [N o. 23] as a man w h o shares his ow n delight in music, and did so w ithout a trace o f condescension,” writes Larkin. “ H e never in­ sulted them,” adds Flexner, “ w ith such caricatures as w ere to become a stock in trade o f C urrier and Ives. Imbued w ith natural grace and dignity, they w orked as little as possible, and fo r the rest danced ecstatically in the sun.” (But does not Flexner’s second sentence perplex his first— and isn’ t that perhaps the germ o f m y uncertainty?) This Banjo Player, this Bone Player [N o. 22], this Right and Left [N o. 2 1 ] — haven’ t they been prettied and posed, veneered w ith an old-w orld glam or (are they Spanish or Dutch?), haven’ t they been condescended to in a most delicate, backhanded man­ ner? There is a w ay o f killing a stereotype w ithout rejuvenating the man. There is a bit too much ecstasy in this timeless Paradise o f banjo, bones and fiddle. Has M ount really taken Em erson’ s ad­ vice to “ embrace the com m on and sit at the feet o f the fam iliar” ?

Their music seems meaningless— very different from the deep thrum that issues, gravely lyri­ cal, from the banjos o f Eakins and Tanner. One searches, perhaps w ron gly, for the personal equa­ tion. That M ount’s revered uncle, M icah Hawkins, w as one o f the inventors o f blackface minstrelsy, that M ount him self hated abolitionists and was a Copperhead during the w ar— can this have some­ thing to do w ith his am biguous black musicians o f the fifties? *

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W in slow H om er’ s portraits o f the Am erican N egro fall into tw o m ajor groups: the C iv il W ar and the Reconstruction.

T en years after Appom attox, H om er locked up his studio in N e w Y o r k and boarded a train south fo r Petersburg, V irginia— w here earlier he had sketched the siege in which Grant had crip­ pled Lee in the final crisis o f the w ar. W h y this decision to carry his brushes south instead o f north to Gloucester seascapes or the Adirondacks? W as it that the N e g ro ’s “ color” fascinated Homer, as one critic has put it? O r was there, perhaps, somewhere in his mind a vague disquiet about certain aspects o f his rendering o f the war— as reporter-artist for Harper s and in the canvases worked up from his sketches— during the days o f the fighting?

Despite the classic claim that H om er was the supreme realist o f the w ar, it cannot in truth be said that his im age o f the N eg ro soldier, aside from its technical virtuosity, differed rem arkably from the im age seen b y lesser artists at the front. The white soldier in blue or gray he saw plain. B u t the stal­ w art black in blue— w h o was present in strength at Petersburg and elsewhere, and to whose critical force Lincoln ascribed the triumph o f the U nion— is notably absent. A lthough in H om er’ s notebook there is a pow erful field-draw ing o f a bearded, black teamster in the saddle, it is, regrettably, the too jo lly , Jim C ro w -ju m p in g, saucer-lipped, kinky-haired cooks and kitchen police— the old vulgari­ zations— that are fo r the most part painfully present in the finished w o rk o f this time. Is there much to choose, conceptually, between the lazy comics o f H om er’ s Our Jo lly Cook* or his Army Boots [N o. 42] and Edw ard Forbes’s sleeping Mess Boy [N o. 48]? (One biographer o f H om er has noted that he was annoyed and embarrassed by the popularity o f his stereotypical Watermelon Boys.*) In­ deed, L lo y d G oodrich makes an overgenerous case, perhaps, fo r this phase o f H om er’s C ivil W ar w o rk , w hen he w rites: “ A lthough his attitude reflected some o f the typical N orthern idea that the N egro w as prim arily a hum orous object, his sense o f colored character and physiognom y was already m ore realistic than the average artist’s minstrel-show conception.”

A decade later, in the paintings o f his Reconstruction group— the outcome o f the V irginia trips o f 187$ and 1876— the N egro is no longer “ prim arily a hum orous object.” W hen H om er m anaged to get that brom ide out o f his head, he w as able to apply his great and grow in g powers to seeing the N egro plain. “ Here fo r the first time in Am erican art,” says Goodrich rightly, “ was a mature understanding o f N egro character.”

In Petersburg, H om er set up his easel in the dooryards o f the N eg ro shanties. W hen a local lyncher ordered the “ damned nigger-painter” out o f town— so H om er w rote his brother— the artist, sitting on his hotel porch, “ looked him in the eyes, as mother used to tell us to look at a w ild c o w .” Here he w orked furiously, painting especially w om en and boys— w ho neither grin nor prance— and sent to the Paris Universal Exposition o f 1878 The Visit o f the Old Mistress [N o. 45] and Sunday Morning in Virginia [N o. 46]. W hen, a few years later at the National Academ y o f D esign, he exhibited the same tw o paintings, a review er told a story that revealed part o f H om er’s attitude tow ard his subjects: “ ‘W h y don’ t you paint our lovely girls instead o f those dreadful crea­ tures?’ asked a First-Fam ily belle when he was in V irginia . . . ‘Because they are the purtiest,’ he said, in his gruff, fmal w a y .”

The Visit o f the Old Mistress, in theme and structure, recalls H om er’s best painting o f the w ar days, his Prisoners from the Front.* The issue o f Prisoners is a confrontation: like tw o columns w ith­ out an architrave, separated b y an ocean o f air and idea, the officer o f the blue faces the officer o f the gray. In The Visit the colum nar figures are black and white— again a tense confrontation w ithout sentimentality. Th e blonde, curled mistress, w ith parasol and lace, seems to expect “ friendship” from her form er slaves, but the black matriarch, her great arms at her sides, stands like a cofferdam.

She is scarcely a Jem im a— not even a Faulknerian D ilsey. H er glance is rejection, a withering o f the white delusion o f her sim plicity, while the eyes and mouths o f her fam ily shadow forth nuances o f her dignity, scorn and restraint.

Sunday Morning in Virginia uses the same backdrop o f w orn planks and patched door— but not as an Eastman Johnson ruin. Although the columnar feeling is gone, there is still a confrontation, although quite properly no face-to-face tension— the old w om an is the past, too late; the young matron and the children focus on the pages o f the future.

There are tw o figures in Sunday Morning that H om er delighted to paint again and again— the com ely w om an and the lovely boy on her right— and they are never victim s o f genre jo llity. (Even in Carnival [N o. 47] a sad stillness pervades the central group— it is a rather unhilarious carnival, only the children smile, unraucously.) T h e black angel, w ho, in a small w ater-color, is Taking a Sunflower to Teacher [N o. 44], is surely one o f the happier realizations o f the artist w ho never tired o f painting the ragged Am erican country boy. R om an tic in the best sense, not naturalistic or darl­ ing, the b o y’ s bright face repeats the sunflower in his hand, w hile a butterfly, the old emblem o f Psyche and Resurrection, flutters like a w in g on his shoulder. (Is there a Blakeian truth in this boy that is missing from R o b ert H enri’s Sylvester [No. 67] years later?) In various settings the face o f the strong-bodied young w om an, portending the heroic form s o f Tynem outh, is studied in the shifting moods o f a free and troubled soul. In Captured Liberators [N o. 43] H om er takes her back to the war, a firm i f trem bling statue fram ed in a doorw ay, her apprehensive hands clutching her apron, as hope passes her by. She w ill appear again in the defiant features o f a girl in The Cotton Pickers,* her dark restless face a com m entary on the w hite fluffs that surround her.

These then are some o f the w orks o f that “ damned nigger-painter” W in slow H om er, w ho portrayed the w hole history o f the hope and failure o f Reconstruction on the eve o f its com pro­ mise. T h ey look forw ard to the shining Caribbeans o f his late water-colors and to that masterpiece o f the black image— the deathless N egro w aiting stoically, Hom erically, for his end between water­ spout and white-bellied shark in The G u lf Stream* — the picture, which, says Alain Locke, broke “ the cotton-patch-and-back-porch tradition” and marked “ the artistic emancipation o f the N egro in Am erican art.” *

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In 19 14 , w hen he w as seventy, the painter o f The Gross Clinic m odestly told an inquiring reporter

that W in slow H om er, w h o had died four years before, had been the best Am erican painter o f his time. Hom er, odd ly enough, never painted his N egro townsmen o f N ew Y o r k or Maine but found his black subjects at the front, in V irginia, in the W est Indies. D id H om er ever really give his mind deeply in a social w ay to the N eg ro ’ s plight? O r is it rather our great good luck that a granite hon­ esty, like one o f his M aine ledges, dashed into spray the white w ave o f hatred that surged about him and his sitters in Virginia?

Thom as Eakins, a humanist o f broader culture, painted a few o f his Philadelphia N egro friends and neighbors— a nearby fam ily, a pupil, a rhythm ic line o f shad fishermen, a few hunting com ­ panions, a w om an in a red shawl— with as much dedication to w hat he termed “ the character o f things” as he lavished on his white friends. O nly a handful o f pictures, to be sure, but in them he sought facets o f the N eg ro ’ s inmost being that H om er could not reach. “ Eakins is not a painter,” his friend W alt W hitm an— w hom he had portrayed as a w ild bard— once said, “ He is a force.”

O ne o f his youthful w orks, a nude Negress [N o. 5 1] w ith coral earrings— painted from life during his student days under Gerom e at the Beaux-A rts in Paris— is both w arm ly exotic and b ro w n ly real, quite unlike his teacher’s overfinished M oorish slavcgirls and “ plaster Cleopatras,” as Z o la once described them. E igh t years after his return from France, w ith his Negro Boy Dancing [N o. 54], w hich w as originally called, simply, The Negroes, Eakins, for the first time in American genre, sharply questioned the slavophile iconography o f banjo, grin and jig when he depicted a serious, lyric fam ily drawn together b y music— oblivious to the vaudeville public— quickened and entranced b y themselves. O n the bare w all behind them hangs the fourth head o f the fam ily— a fram ed oval o f Lincoln and his son. H o w much loving care Eakins gave to his dancing boy may be seen in the spirited oil sketch fo r the final w ork. A s scrupulous in its justice to the face w ithout a film is the dynam ically modeled head o f the black hunter in Whistling fo r Plover [N o. 52], w ho squats and tow ers like a pyram id on the marshy flats. There is a similar scene o f about the same time, W ill Schuster and Blackman Going Shooting,* in w hich the N eg ro hunter, his punting-pole like a javelin stretching from top to bottom o f the canvas, has a majesty like Jo celyn ’s Cinque and M o u n t’s spearwoman. (In still another picture o f the hunt, Eakins painted him self in the black’s place.) E ven m in or appearances o f the N egro in large, com plex w orks— as, for instance, the correct coachman o f The Fairman Rogers Four-in-FIand* or the discreet chaperone o f the later version o f William Rush*— show persons rather than props.

O n ly in Eakins’ s black commoners, the “ divine average” o f W hitm an’s century, do w e have a visual evocation o f the life-caresser’s chant on a N egro teamster: His glance is calm and com m anding, he tosses the slouch o f his hat aw ay from his forehead, T h e sun falls on his crispy hair and mustache, falls on the black o f his polish’d and perfect limbs. “ W hitm an never makes a mistake,” Eakins liked to say.

B u t no im age like that o f the young mulatto w om an o f The Red Shaw l [No. 55] exists in Leaves o f Grass, nor, to be sure, am ong the Reconstruction figures o f Homer. Eakins painted her— w e do not kn ow her name— in the same year as his marvelous Clara; yet I w ould rank her unsur­ passed head— let lesser adjectives go— w ith that crow ning jew el o f American portraiture, his Edith Mahon. (All three w ith their matchless eyes and throats.)

In that single portrait o f a N egro w om an and in the troubled countenance o f his N egro pupil, H enry Ossawa Tanner o f Pittsburgh [N o. 56], Eakins helped show the w ay to what he called “ a great and distinctively Am erican art.” W hat, indeed, is more “ Am erican” than the racial tragedy— the mastered grief, the outraged stillness, the polite cynicism— that Eakins discerned in Tanner’s hypersensitive face?

For Eakins had also said: “ i f young art students wish to assume a place in the history o f the art o f their country, their first desire should be to remain in America, to peer deeper into the heart o f Am erican life.” Possibly it w as Tanner’s first desire to return to Am erica, follow ing his graduation in 1888 from the Pennsylvania Academ y o f Fine Arts, and after the usual few years o f study abroad.

Possibly, like another o f Eakins’s talented pupils, the painter o f steel workers, Thom as Anshutz— the tired and beautiful hands o f whose Aunt Hannah [N o. 63] say all that sleeps in the shadow o f her face— Tanner wished to peer deeper into American life, both black and white. After teaching school too long in Atlanta, he found his w ay to Paris, and for five years studied at the Academ ic Julien. Befriended by the academician Constant, distrustful o f a w hite Am erica where he was judged too often as an “ exceptional” N egro rather than as an artist, he abandoned his early Am erican sub­ ject— there were promising landscapes and a portrait o f his father, a Methodist bishop, that had the Eakins touch— for Breton peasants and Rembrandtesque illustrations o f the Bible.

Th e peasants w ere w ell done and his Resurrection oj Lazarus was purchased by France fo r the Luxem bourg G allery. Had Tanner, as Locke suggests, thus repudiated his chance to become “ the founder o f a racial school o f Am erican art” ? In 1893, on one o f his rare trips to the United States, he painted his m oving but too studiously posed Banjo Player [N o. 64], a reiteration, in a w ay, o f w hat Eakins had done fifteen years before, but phrased too sentimentally perhaps in the dialect lyricism o f Paul Lawrence Dunbar. In France, to “ a few young N egro painters w ho sought his help,” adds Locke, “ he was alw ays careful to explain that he was interested in them as painters, not as N egroes.” *

*

*

It is the good fortune o f Am erican art that the spurious, i f understandable, dichotom y in the minds o f Duncanson and Tanner has been discarded by the outstanding N egro painters o f our time. The three canvases o f Horace Pippin, W illiam Johnson and Jacob Lawrence— only a small bouquet culled from a first flow ering w hich includes the varied w ork o f Charles W hite, Archibald M otley, Jo h n W ilson and others— are p ro o f positive o f this com ing o f age.

Horace Pippin, w ounded veteran o f the first W orld W ar, his crippled right hand steadied by his left, painted a new dimension o f the “ prim itive.” Discovered in the thirties, Pippin m ay be our greatest self-taught painter. A first, and superficial, glance w ill perhaps make him out a black Ed­ w ard Hicks or Grandm a Moses. But the subject and spirit o f Pippin’s heroic scries on the trial and hanging o f Jo h n B ro w n are his alone. In Pippin’s Holy Mountain [N o. 74], completed in 1945, a year before his death, a N eg ro child (replacing Hicks’s white cherub) gam bols in front o f carnivo­ rous beasts (three w ith unlikely white fur) whose eyes stare at us, unblinkingly and unbelievingly, w hile a black Isaiah reigns as shepherd o f the peaceable kingdom .

W illiam John son , born in South Carolina at the turn o f the century, helped to go abroad by G eorge Luks (w ho w ith his friend Bellow s painted the N egro w ith Ashcan honesty), learned what he could from Soutine and M unch, and then returned to Am erica to paint a brown-black Jesus on the cross in a w a y that Griinew ald and Posada might have approved. T h e frontal sym m etry o f his G irl in a Green Dress [N o. 7 1] suggests assymetrical questions.

W hen Johnson returned to N e w Y o r k in 1938, Jacob Law rence, probably the ablest and most original N egro so far to paint in America (he states that he has been influenced by Brueghel, G oya, Daum ier and the M exicans) was already embarked on his panoramic annals o f the N eg ro role in Am erican history. In 19 4 1, before he was twenty-four, he had completed over a hundred panels im aginatively delineating the lives o f Toussaint L ’ O uverture, Frederick Douglass and Harriet T u b­ man. A year later, as Pippin was putting the final touches on his account o f Jo h n B ro w n , Lawrence was finishing an impassioned sequence on the life o f the old m artyr. And the Migratits Keep Coming [N o. 73], a mere hint o f the total w ork, is one o f sixty tempera panels, h a lf o f which m ay be seen in the Phillips G allery, h a lf in the Museum o f M odern Art. *

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H a lf a century after H om er and Eakins, can it be said that the untainted im age o f the N egro— as a visible man, or struggling, not always alone, to become so— is still the rare thing that w e found it during the first tw o hundred years o f American painting? Honesty alone w ill, o f course, not create a great w ork o f art. B u t where, in these states, is there a living painter o f stature w ho whispers the shibboleth o f color? The names and w orks o f Benton and Hirsch, o f Soyer, Shahn and W yeth arc household w ords in our day and their images o f the N egro are fam iliar in the land. O n ly a few o f these w orks are here for us to see but they make clear that the bright tradition o f Hom er and Eakins is in the hands o f painters w ho are responding as artists and m en to the troubled present, whose vision o f hum anity, both black and white, must be part o f the future. The cotton farmers whose bodies take their curves from crop and cloud [N o. 69], the m ourning goddess whose child shakes its rattle against a w hite squall [N o. 76], the asthmatic b o y wheezing in front o f the clinic [N o. 78], the Baptist minister w ho grasps the hand o f the union leader under a Gothic arch [N o. 75], the

puzzled girl w ho ponders the m ystery o f old age [N o. 79]— all echo and answer the unforgettable lines o f Ellison’s epilogue: “ D iversity is the w ord. Let man keep his many parts and you ’ ll have no tyrant states. W h y , i f they fo llo w this conform ity business they’ll end up by forcing me, an invisible man, to become white, w hich is not a color but a lack o f one.”

Si d

n e y

k a p l a n

U niversity o f Massachusetts

CATALOGUE

CATALOGUE W ith few exceptions, pictures have been listed chronologically. T h e paintings o f M ount, H om er and Eakins, each o f w hom is represented by six examples, have been grouped together. Measurements, given in inches, height before width, were supplied b y lenders.

1 J U S T U S E N G E L H A R D T K U H N (d. 17 17 ) Portrait o f Henry Darnall III, c. 17 10 O il on canvas, 53 y% X \\ M aryland Historical Society, Baltim ore (Ellen C . Daingerfield Collection) A Germ an by birth, Kuhn settled at Annapolis, M aryland sometime before D e­ cember 1708 and w orked there until his death in N ovem ber 17 17 . H enry Darnall ill, w ho w as born in 1702, became Collector o f Customs fo r the Potom ac and R e ­ ceiver o f Revenues fo r Lord Baltim ore. This is the first kn ow n Am erican painting in w hich a N egro is portrayed.

2 J O H N S I N G L E T O N C O P L E Y (17 3 7 -18 15 ) Watson and the Shark, 1778 O il on canvas, 203^X24 The M etropolitan M useum o f Art, N ew Y o rk (Gift o f M rs. G ordon D exter, 1942) The greatest o f all American portraitists o f the eighteen century, C opley began painting in the city o f his birth, Boston, as early as 175 3. A fter an extrem ely suc­ cessful career in this country, C o p ley left for Europe in 17 74 , settling the follow ing year in London where he lived and w orked fo r the remainder o f his life.

This painting depicts the incident when B ro o k W atson, at the age o f fourteen, lost his leg to a shark in Havana H arbor in 1749. W atson w ent on to become a success­ ful businessman, M em ber o f Parliament and, in 1796, L o rd M ayor o f London. Th e present picture is presum ably a study for the much larger version o f the scene, the original o f which is in Christ’s Hospital, London and a replica in the Museum o f

Fine Arts, Boston. Y e t another, smaller version, signed and dated 1782, is in Th e D etroit Institute o f Arts together w ith a sketch o f the head o f a N egro which may be a study for that figure in the original composition. Unfortunately, nothing is know n about the N egro in the painting.

3 W I N T H R O P C H A N D L E R (1747-90) R iver Scene with Figures, c. 1779 O il on panel, 20 X 58 M r. and Mrs. Bertram K . Little, Brookline, Massachusetts This landscape by Chandler, a Connecticut painter, was done as a fireplace over足 mantle fo r Ebenezer W aters o f Sutton, Massachusetts.

4 U N K N O W N A R T IS T Alexander Spotswood Payne and his Brother, John Robert Datidridge Payne, with their Nurse, c. 1790 O il on canvas, 5 6 ^ x 6 9 V irginia Museum o f Fine Arts, Richm ond (Gift o f Miss D oroth y Payne, 1963) Alexander Spotsw ood Payne, w ho appears to be about ten years old in this paint足 ing, was born in 1780.

5 R A L P H E A R L ( 17 5 1- 18 0 1) Gentleman with Negro Attendant, c. 1795 O il on canvas, 3 0 X 2 5 N e w Britain M useum o f Am erican Art, N e w Britain, Connecticut B o rn in W orcester C ounty, Massachusetts, Earl established him self as a portrait painter in N e w H aven, Connecticut just before the R evolu tion . Because o f his Loyalist sympathies, he was obliged to go to England in 1778, w here he remained seven years. U pon his return to this country, he painted in Connecticut and neigh足 boring states until his death.

6

G E O R G E R O P E S (1788-1819) Salem Common on Training Day, 1808 O il on canvas, 3 5 X 52% Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts (Purchased b y subscription, 19 19 ) A contem porary description o f one o f the Training D a y Parades in The Essex Reg­ ister o f O ctober 15 , 1808 reads: “ On W ednesday last the Salem R egim ent, the Cadets, the Artillery and the C avalry, form ed a line on W ashington Square; and were inspected and review ed by the proper officers. T h e appearance o f the whole line w as highly gratifying to the spectators. In the afternoon the imitation o f battle was perform ed w ith spirit and precision; and very much to the satisfaction o f the m ilitary m en.” There are numerous references to N egroes in Salem at the time o f this painting in The Diary o f William Bentley, 17 8 4 -18 19 , published by the Essex Institute, 19 0 5 -14 , especially in V o l. 111 w here the establishment (1807) and subse­ quent developm ent o f a school fo r N egro children is discussed.

R o p es, w ho was d eaf and dumb from birth, was a Salem painter.

7 U N K N O W N A R T IS T S y or C y Gilliat, Negro Banjo Player O il on canvas, 3 5 X 2 7 ^ The Valentine Museum, R ichm on d, V irginia Gilliat w as a w ell-know n musician in R ich m on d from the late eighteenth century until his death in about 1822.

8 JO S H U A JO H N S T O N

(active, 179 6-18 24)

Portrait o f a Cleric (?), c. 18 0 5 -10 O il on canvas, 28 X 22 B o w d o in College Museum o f A rt, Brunsw ick, Maine Johnston, w ho is know n to have w orked in Baltim ore between 1796 and 1824, was the first N egro portrait painter in this country. N othin g is kn ow n about the identity o f the sitter in this painting, w hich is said to have com e from “ an old

Baltim ore fam ily residing in the vicinity o f Calvert and Chase Streets.” The paint­ ing was attributed and dated by the late D r. J . Hall Pleasants, the leading authority on Johnston.

9 C H A R L E S W I L L S O N P E A L E (17 4 1-18 2 7 ) Portrait o f Yarrow Mamout, 18 19 O il on canvas, 24 X 20 The Historical Society o f Pennsylvania, Philadelphia A native o f M aryland, Peale first studied painting w ith Jo h n Hesselius about 176 2-63. He also studied with Benjam in W est in London, 1767-69. U pon his re­ turn to this country, he made his home in Annapolis until 1775. In 1778, after serving three years w ith the Continental A rm y, Peale settled perm anently in Phila­ delphia. Several o f his children also became noted artists. Peale’ s principal reason for painting M am out, w ho professed the M oham m edan religion, probably was because o f a great interest in the longevity o f his sitter, w ho claimed to be 134 years old!

10 J O H N B. M A R T I N (1797-1857) Portrait o f James (Armistead) Lafayette, c. 1824 O il on canvas, 263^X243^ T h e Valentine M useum , R ichm on d, Virginia Born in Ireland, M artin came to N e w Y o rk about 18 15 . H e m oved to R ich m on d in 18 17 , where he w orked for the remainder o f his life. T h e sitter, a courier to the M arquis de Lafayette during the R evolution , visited R ich m on d in 1824, at w hich time this portrait is believed to have been painted.

11 J E R E M I A H H A R D Y (1800-88) Portrait o f Abraham Hanson, c. 1828 O il on canvas, 24 3^X 213^ Addison Gallery o f Am erican A rt Phillips Academ y, Andover, Massachusetts

Hardy, w h o was born in N e w Hampshire, m oved w ith his parents to Maine in 1 8 1 1 . A fter studying in Boston about 1822, and a few years later w ith Samuel F. B . M orse in N e w Y o rk , H ardy returned to M aine w here he painted for the re­ m ainder o f his life. Abraham Hanson was a B angor barber highly regarded for his w it and good humor.

12 U N K N O W N A R T IS T Portrait o f a Gentleman, c. 1830 O il on panel, 2 6 X 2 1 B o w d o in College Museum o f A rt, Brunswick, Maine A t present neither the identity o f the painter nor the sitter is know n.

13 U N K N O W N A R T IS T Portrait o f William Whipper, c. 1835 O il on canvas, 2 4 14 X 19 N e w Y o r k State Historical Association, Cooperstow n W hipper was the son o f a N egro servant girl and her w hite master, a Pennsylvania lumber merchant. H e was brought up and educated in the same house w ith his white half-brother. W hipper w ent on to become a lum ber merchant himself, eventually inheriting his father’s business. He helped to found a N egro Abolitionist organization know n as the Am erican M oral R e fo rm Society, and, in 1837, twelve years before Thoreau’s essay “ C iv il Disobedience,” published an article in The Colored American entitled “ An Address on N on-Resistance to Offensive Aggres­ sion” (cf. Louis C . Jones, “ A Leader Ahead o f His T im es,” American Heritage, Ju ne 1963).

14 U N K N O W N A R T IS T Enigmatic Foursome, 2nd quarter 19th century O il on canvas, 24 X 18 N e w Y o r k State Historical Association, Cooperstow n

It has been suggested that this painting m ight portray either a theatrical troupe: the ingenue, the heavy, the clow n, and the N egro w ho sang, danced and did bit parts— or an Abolitionist fam ily w ith a N egro friend or ward.

15 C H R I S T I A N M A Y R (1805-50) Kitchen B all at White Sulphur Springs, 1838 O il on canvas, 24 X 29 y2 Th e N orth Carolina Museum o f Art, R aleigh M ayr was born in G erm any and came to N ew Y o rk about 1834. H e is kn ow n to have w orked in the South about the time o f this picture. W hite Sulphur Springs (Virginia until 18 6 1— W est V irginia thereafter) was the hub o f the South’ s social activity until the C iv il W ar.

16 N A T H A N IE L JO C E L Y N

(179 6 -18 8 1)

Portrait o f Cinque, 1840 O il on canvas, 3 0 X 2 5 The N e w Haven C o lo n y Historical Society, N ew Haven, Connecticut Born in N e w H aven, Jo celyn began his career as an apprentice to a clockinakcr.

He took up engraving in 18 13 and subsequently became associated w ith a firm which manufactured banknotes. He established him self as a portrait painter about 1823, visiting England and France in 1829. From 1843 to 1847 Jo cely n maintained a portrait studio in N e w Y o rk C ity, but after his N ew Haven studio burned dow n in 1849 he gave up painting and turned full time to banknote engraving.

The son o f a M endi C hief, Cinque was captured and placed aboard a Portuguese ship to be sold into slavery in Cuba. In Havana, he and fifty other Africans were acquired b y tw o Spaniards for shipment aboard a vessel named the Amistad to Principe. Seizing weapons from sleeping sailors at night, the Africans killed the captain, set the crew free in a small boat and, with Cinque in charge, proceeded to order the tw o Spanish owners to take the ship to Africa. The Amistad, how ever, was som ehow turned in the opposite direction and sixty-three days later arrived o ff the coast o f L o n g Island. There a N a v y brig captured the ship and took it to N e w London w here the Africans were imprisoned to await trial for the m urder o f the Amistad’s Captain. After a long trial, at which an English-speaking M endi sailor from another vessel served as interpreter, Cinque and his colleagues w ere

acquitted, only to have that decision appealed to the Supreme Court. Jo h n Q uincy Adams, then a seventy-three-year-old M em ber o f Congress, spoke before the C o u rt fo r eight and a h alf hours in the defendants’ behalf. The original decision for acquittal was upheld and Cinque and his fellow Africans were freed, returning to A frica the follow ing year. W hittier w rote o f Cinque: “ W hat a master spirit is his. W h at a soul for the tyrant to crush dow n in bondage.”

17 U N K N O W N A R T IS T Lady in a Fine Scarf, c. 1845 O il on canvas, 30 X 2 5 N e w Y o r k State Historical Association, Cooperstown

18 W I L L I A M S I D N E Y M O U N T (1807-68) Farmers Nooning, 1836 O il on canvas, 20 X 24 Suffolk M useum , Stony B ro ok, L o n g Island, N e w Y o rk (M elville Collection) M ount, w h o was born on Lon g Island and spent all his life either there or in N ew Y o r k C ity , was one o f Am erica’s greatest genre painters.

19 W I L L I A M S I D N E Y M O U N T (1807-68) The Power o f Music, 1847 O il on canvas, 1 7 X 2 1 Th e C en tury Association, N ew Y o rk O ne is tempted to agree with w hat a contem porary critic w rote in The Literary World o f Ju n e 5, 1847: “ This picture w ill insure M ount a permanent reputation, i f he fishes fo r clams all the rest o f his life.”

20 W I L L I A M S I D N E Y M O U N T (1807-68) California News, 1850 O il on canvas, 2 13^ X 2 0 34 W ard M elville, Stony B rook, Lon g Island, N e w Y o rk

21 W I L L I A M S I D N E Y M O U N T (1807-68) Right and Left, 1850 O il on canvas, 3 0 x 2 5 Suffolk Museum, Stony B ro ok, Long Island, N e w Y o rk (M elville Collection)

22 W I L L I A M S I D N E Y M O U N T (1807-68) The Bone Player, 1856 O il on canvas, 3 6 X 2 9 Museum o f Fine Arts, Boston (M. & M . K arolik Collection)

23 W I L L I A M S I D N E Y M O U N T (1807-68) The Banjo Player, 1856 O il on canvas, 3 6 x 2 9 Suffolk Museum, Stony B ro o k , Lon g Island, N ew Y o rk (M elville Collection)

24 J A M E S G . C L O N N E Y (18 12-6 7) Sleeping Negro, 1835 O il on canvas, 1 3 % X 17 V ictor D . Spark, N e w Y o rk B orn in Edinburgh or Liverpool, C lonney came to this country before 1830, when his name begins to appear on lithographs issued in N e w Y o rk . He became an Associate o f the National Academ y in the year before this picture was painted.

D uring his career, he w orked in various places in N e w Y o rk State, including Peekskill, N ew R ochelle, Cooperstow n and Bingham ton.

25 J A M E S G . C L O N N E Y (18 12-6 7) The M ilitia Training, 18 41 O il on canvas, 28 X 40 Th e Pennsylvania Academ y o f the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (Bequest o f H enry C . Carey, 1879)

26 J A M E S G . C L O N N E Y (1812-67) In the Cornfield, 1844 O il on canvas, 14 X 17 M useum o f Fine Arts, Boston (M. & M . K arolik Collection)

27 R I C H A R D C A T O N W O O D V I L L E , Sr. (18 25-55) War N ew s from Mexico, c. 1846 O il on canvas, 2 7 X 2 4 % N ational Academ y o f Design, N e w Y o rk W ood ville was born in Baltim ore and originally intended to be a doctor, but in 1845 he turned to a career in painting and w ent to study in Diisseldorf, where he remained for six years. From 18 5 1 on he lived first in Paris and then in London, where he died in 1855.

T h e w ar between the U nited States and M exico stemmed m ainly from Presi­ dent P o lk ’s desire to annex N e w M exico. It is interesting to note that the W ilm ot Proviso, which was introduced in the Senate in 1846, but never passed, provided that slavery be excluded from any territory acquired from M exico.

28 U N K N O W N A R T IS T The Slave Market, c. 1850 O il on canvas, 2 9 ^ X 3 9 ^ M useum o f Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh

It has been suggested that this picture m ay be by T re v o r M cC lu rg (18 16 -9 3), a Pittsburgh painter w h o shared the studio o f the better-known D avid G. Blythe (18 15 -6 5 ), whose w o rk also dealt w ith contem porary social and political issues.

29 E Y R E C R O W E (18 2 4 -19 10 ), English Slave Market, Richmond, Virginia, c. 1853 O il on canvas, 2 1 y2 X 3 1 % M r. and M rs. D elbert D . R u ch , W ashington, D . C .

A t the time this picture probably was painted, C ro w e was secretary to the English novelist, W illiam Makepeace Thackeray, during the latter’s first lecture tour o f this country. C ro w e remained on this side o f the Atlantic until 1857.

30 RO BERT D U N CA N SO N

(18 17 /2 2 -7 2 )

Uncle Tom and Little Eva, 1853 O il on canvas, 2734 X 3 8 34 T h e D etroit Institute o f Arts Duncanson was born in N ew Y o r k State o fa N egro mother and a Scotch-Canadian father. A fter a childhood spent in Canada, he m oved to M ount H o lly, O hio in 18 4 1. The follow ing year he began to exhibit in Cincinnati, w here he later painted a series o f mural landscapes for “ Belm ont,” the home o f Nicholas Longw orth (now the T a ft M useum ). Duncanson traveled abroad to Italy in 1853 and to Eng­ land, 1863-66.

31 U N K N O W N A R T IS T Portrait oj Thomas Bronk (d. 1862) Pastel on paper, 283^X 223^ N e w Y o r k State Historical Association, Cooperstown According to the still extant bill o f sale, B ro n k became the slave o f Jam es Averell, Jr . in Cooperstow n on O ctober 2, 18 15 , w orkin g in A verell’ s tannery. He later be­ came the servant o f his form er ow ner’s son, W illiam H olt Averell, and lived to a

considerable age, “ a dignified old gentleman, respected b y all w h o knew him ” (obituary, The Otsego Farmer, Coopcrstow n, N ovem ber 28, 1862).

32 W I L L I A M M A T T H E W P R I O R (1806-73) Three Sisters o f the Coplan Family, 1854 O il on canvas, 2 6 ^ X 3 6 14 M useum o f Fine Arts, Boston (M. & M . Karolik Collection) B orn in M aine, Prior lived and w orked there until m ovin g to Boston about 1840 w here he spent the remainder o f his career. The three Coplan sisters are Eliza, N ellie and M argaret, w ho w ere daughters o f a Boston paw nbroker w ho had m oved to Chelsea, w here this picture was painted. P rior is believed to have been associated w ith the Abolitionist m ovement.

33 TH O M AS W ATERM AN W OOD

(1823-1903)

Moses, the Baltimore News Vendor, 1858 O il on canvas, 24 X 15 California Palace o f the Legion o f H onor, San Francisco (M ildred Anna W illiam s Collection) W ood , w h o was born in Verm ont, was a pupil o f Chester Harding in Boston.

A fter study abroad, W ood returned to this country to travel in the South, but ultim ately took up residence in N e w Y o rk in 1867, w here he w orked for the re­ mainder ofh is life. W ood painted in Baltim ore between 1856 and 1858. According to a letter about this painting w ritten by the artist, Moses had carried the Baltimore American for more than fifty years at the time the picture was painted. A com ­ panion to this portrait, entitled Negress, is also in the collection o f the California Palace o f the Legion o f Honor.

34 E A S T M A N JO H N S O N

(1824-1906)

Negro B oy, i860 O il on canvas, 1 4 X 17 pg N ational Academ y o f Design, N e w Y o rk

Born in Lovell, M aine, Johnson became an apprentice in BufFord’s Lithographic Shop in Boston in 1840 when he was sixteen. Turning to crayon portraiture, he soon achieved great success in that m edium in Augusta, M aine, w here his father was Secretary o f State. About 1845 he w ent to W ashington, D . C ., where he did crayon portraits o f D olly Madison and other W ashington notables including Dan­ iel W ebster. In 1849 Johnson took up oil painting and w ent to Europe, studying at D iisseldorf and Th e Hague. He returned to this country in 1855. O ne o f his most famous paintings, O ld Kentucky Home (now in The N e w -Y o rk Historical Society), a scene o f N egro life painted in W ashington in 1859, w on him an Associate M em ­ bership in the National Academ y, where it was exhibited that year. The present painting was Johnson’s “ diplom a picture” done on his election to a full member­ ship in the Academ y in i860. Johnson continued as a genre painter until about 1887, when he again turned to portraiture which occupied him fo r most o f the remainder o f his career.

35 E A S T M A N JO H N S O N

(1824-1906)

A Ride fo r Liberty— The Fugitive Slaves, 1862 O il on canvas, 2 1 ^ x 2 6 1 4 T h e B ro oklyn Museum On the verso o f another version o f this picture Johnson inscribed, “ A veritable in­ cident in the C iv il W ar, seen b y m yself at Centerville on the m orning o f M cC lel­ lan’s advance to Manassas, M arch 2, 1862.”

36 E A S T M A N JO H N S O N

(1824-1906)

Portrait o f a Negress, c. 1866 O il on Academ y board, 10 1^ X 8 1^ Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., N ew Y o rk

37 W I L L I A M A I K E N W A L K E R (c. 18 3 8 -19 2 1) The Bombardment o f Fort Sumter, 1886 O il on canvas, 22 X 40 M r. Herman A . Schindler, Charleston, South Carolina

A native o f Charleston, W alker first exhibited there in 1850 at about the age o f twelve. H e later studied in Diisseldorf, returning to Charleston, where he spent most o f the remainder o f his life as a genre painter w hose subjects w ere chiefly o f N egro life. This painting is based on an earlier sketch o f the scene done while W alker w as in the Confederate Engineer Corps.

38 TH O M AS M O RAN

(1837-1926)

Slaves Escaping through the Swamp, 1863 O il on canvas, 3234X 43 P hilbrook A rt Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma B orn in England, M oran came to M aryland w ith his fam ily in 1844. H e studied painting in Philadelphia in the m id-i850s. T h e year before this picture was painted, he visited England, where he came under the influence o f the great English land­ scapist, J . M . W . Turner. M oran is best kn ow n for his scenes o f the American W est— Y ellow stone Park, Yosem ite and the Grand C anyon .

39 T H O M A S S U L L Y (1783-1872) Portrait o f Edward James Roye, 1864 O il on canvas, 24 X 20 The Historical Society o f Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Sully, w h o was born in England, came to this country (Charleston) with his par­ ents in 17 9 2. H e settled permanently in Philadelphia in 1808 and soon became the leading portrait painter there, a position he held for the rest o f his life.

E d w ard Jam es R o y e was born in N ew ark, O hio and taught school a few years in Chillicothe. H e later became a sheep trader and shopkeeper, but about 1840 be­ gan thinking about emigrating to escape Am erican prejudice. He finally decided on Liberia, arriving there in 1846. It was not long before he was the most important merchant in the country. In 1849 R o y e became Speaker o f the Liberian House o f Representatives and served as C h ie f Justice from 1865 to 1868. After three unsuc­ cessful tries for the Presidency, he finally was elected, taking office in January 18 7 1.

His term in office was not a happy one, how ever, chiefly because o f an unsatis­ factory loan from Great Britain, the negotiations fo r w hich he was largely rcspon-

sible. He was deposed from office in O ctober 18 7 1 and subsequently summoned to trial before the Suprem e C ourt. Attem pting to leave the country, R o y e was drow ned trying to reach an English steamer in a native canoe.

40 A A R O N E . D A R L I N G (active, 1864-67) Portrait o f John Jones O il on canvas, 42 X 3 1% Chicago Historical Society (Gift o f M rs. L . Jones Lee) Jo h n Jones was born about 18 17 in Green County, N orth Carolina, the son o f a Germ an father and a free M ulatto mother. He became a tailor and in 1845 took up residence in Chicago, w here b y i860 he is said to have amassed a small fortune. He was a key figure in the successful movement to rescind the discrim inatory Illinois Black Law s and w as elected to the office o f County Com m issioner in 18 7 1. He died in 1879.

N othing is kn ow n about A aron E . Darling except that he is listed in the Chicago C ity Directories between 1864 and 1867.

41 A A R O N E . D A R L I N G (active, 1864-67) Portrait o f Mrs. John Jones (M ary Richardson) O il on canvas, 28 X 22 Chicago Historical Society (Gift o f M rs. Theodora Lee Purnell) M rs. Jones was the daughter o f a free N egro . She w as born in 18 19 and died in 1900. Her portrait w as cut dow n in size at some unknown time in the past.

42 W I N S L O W H O M E R (18 36 -19 10 ) Army Boots, 1865 O il on canvas, 13 i^X 17 P6 V ictor D . Spark, N e w Y o rk

Hom er, w ho was born in Boston, showed an interest in draw ing at a very early age and painted his first w ater-color in 1847. Between the ages o f nineteen and tw enty-one he was an apprentice at the lithographic firm o f J . H. Bufford in Bos­ ton. His first illustrations w ere done for Ballou s Pictorial and Harper s Weekly.

H om er m oved to N e w Y o rk in 1859 and attended a draw ing school in Brooklyn.

In 1861 he studied at the National Academ y and briefly w ith the painter Frederic R on d el fo r his only form al training in oil. Hom er went to the front for Harper s during the C iv il W ar, but most o f his pictures, including the present example, dealt w ith the peaceful sidelines o f the w ar. In 1865 he w as elected a member o f The C en tury Association and the National Academ y o f Design. In 1866 he went to France fo r ten months. He traveled to England in 18 8 1-8 2 . In 1883 Hom er took up residence in Prout’s N eck, Maine, where he lived for the greater part o f each year (except fo r frequent winters in Florida and the Bahamas and summers in the A dirondacks and Canada) for the remainder o f his life.

43 W I N S L O W H O M E R (18 36 -19 10 ) Captured Liberators, 1865-66 O il on canvas, 2234X 18 E dw ard Eberstadt & Sons, N ew Y o rk This is a n ew ly discovered, unrecorded painting showing in the background U nion troops captured b y Confederates.

44 W IN S L O W

H O M E R (18 36 -19 10 )

Taking a Sunflower to Teacher, 1875 W ater-color, 7 X 5 ^ Georgia M useum o f Art, U niversity o f Georgia, Athens

45 W I N S L O W H O M E R (18 36 -19 10 ) The Visit o f the Mistress, 1876 O il on canvas, 1 7 ^ X 2 3 ^ N ational Collection o f Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, W ashington

This scene depicts freed slaves being visited by their form er mistress, a situation more clearly described by the original title o f the picture, The Visit o f the Old Mis­ tress. It w as exhibited at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1878. This and the fol­ low ing tw o pictures w ere painted by H om er in N e w Y o rk C ity from studies he had made o f N egro life in Petersburg, V irginia. Concerning these pictures a critic wrote in The Boston Post o f M arch 1, 1879, “ The N egro boys, girls and w om en which this artist produced in oils a year or more ago— their taw ny skins, their superbly modelled faces, their full contours, their admirable balance and m ove­ ment— w h y , no painter in this or any other country ever so successfully and nobly fixed upon canvas the typical historical American African. A hundred years from now those pictures alone w ill have kept him famous.”

46 W I N S L O W H O M E R (18 36 -19 10 ) Sunday Morning in Virginia, 1877 O il on canvas, 18 X 24 The Cincinnati A rt Museum This picture was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1878.

47 W I N S L O W H O M E R (18 36 -19 10 ) Carnival, 1877 O il on canvas, 20 X 30 Th e M etropolitan M useum o f A rt, N ew Y o rk (Lazarus Fund, 1922) This picture was form erly titled Dressingfor the Carnival.

48

E D W I N F O R B E S (1839-95) Mess Boy Asleep, 1867 O il on canvas, 14 X 2 0 14 W adsw orth Atheneum , H artford, Connecticut (The Ella Gallup Sum ner and M ary Catlin Sumner Collection) A scene undoubtedly remembered by Forbes from his experiences as a staff artist for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper during the C iv il W ar.

49 F R A N K B U C H S E R (1828-90), Swiss Guitar Player, 1867 O il on canvas, 24 X 18 Kennedy Galleries, Inc., N ew Y o r k Buchser w orked in the U nited States from 1866 to 18 7 1. H e spent the summer o f 1867 in V irginia, w here this picture probably was painted.

50 H O RACE BO NH AM

(1835-92)

Nearing the Issue at the Cockpit, 1870 O il on canvas, 2 0 14 x 2 7 1^ The C orcoran G allery o f Art, W ashington B o rn in W est Manchester, Pennsylvania, Bonham studied law and w as admitted to the bar, but evidently never practiced, preferring instead a career as a painter. He exhibited at the N ational Academ y between 1879 and 1886.

51 T H O M A S E A K I N S (18 4 4 -19 16 ) Negress, c. 1867-69 O il on canvas, 2 2 % X 19 % Lent A nonym ously Eakins w as born in Philadelphia and first studied there at the Pennsylvania Acad­ emy. Because life classes were rare at the Academ y and Eakins loathed drawing from plaster casts, he enrolled in a class in anatom y at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. In 1866 he w ent to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where his most admired teacher was Gerom e. He also w en t to Spain where the art o f R ib era and Velasquez made an enormous impression on him. Eakins was an in­ structor at the Pennsylvania Academ y from 1876 to 1886, but was forced to resign as a result o f his insistence on posing a nude male model before a m ixed class. B e­ cause o f his uncom promising realism, his portrait commissions w ere few and he painted m ostly his fam ily and friends. A lthough he w o n some awards in his later life and w as elected to the National Academ y in 1902, Eakins’s genius was not ap­ preciated during his lifetim e. T o d ay his reputation is such that many regard him as the greatest o f all Am erican painters. L loyd Goodrich, w h o has w ritten the leading

study o f Eakins, w as inform ed by M rs. Eakins that she believed this painting to have been done b y her husband during his student days in Paris.

52 T H O M A S E A K I N S (18 4 4 -19 16 ) Whistling fo r Plover, 1874 W ater-color, 1 1 X 16 1^ T h e B ro o k lyn M useum

53 T H O M A S E A K I N S (18 4 4 -19 16 ) Negro Boy Dancing, c. 1878 O il on canvas, 213^ X 9 3^ Lent Anonym ously This is a preparatory oil sketch fo r the completed w ater-color [N o. 54].

54 T H O M A S E A K I N S (18 4 4 -19 16 ) Negro Boy Dancing, 1878 W ater-color, 1 8 ^ X 2 2 % T h e M etropolitan M useum o f Art, N ew Y o rk (Fletcher Fund, 1925) O riginally exhibited under the title o f The Negroes, this w ater-color was awarded a silver medal at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics’ Association exhibition in Boston in 1878.

55 T H O M A S E A K I N S (18 4 4 -19 16 ) The R ed Shawl, c. 1890 O il on canvas, 24 X 20 Philadelphia M useum o f A rt

56 T H O M A S E A K I N S (184 4-19 16) Portrait o f Henry O. Tanner, c. 1900 O il on canvas, 24 1^X 20 34 The H yd e Collection, Glens Falls, N e w Y o rk Tanner w as a pupil o f Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academ y. A painting by Tanner, entitled The Banjo Lesson, is included in the present exhibition [N o. 64].

57

T H O M A S H O V E N D E N (1840-95) Their Pride O il on canvas, 3 1 X 4 1 The U n io n League Club, N ew Y o rk B orn in C o u n ty C o rk, Ireland, Hovenden came to N e w Y o rk in 1863, entering the school o f the National Academ y o f Design. He was elected a member o f the A cadem y in 1882. His interest in the N egro m ay have had something to do with the fact that his studio at Plym outh M eeting, M ontgom ery C ounty, Pennsylvania had been the scene o f Abolitionist meetings and an “ underground railw ay” center.

58 R I C H A R D N O R R I S B R O O K E (1847-1920) A Pastoral Visit, 18 8 1 O il on canvas, 47^4x65^4 Th e C orcoran Gallery o f Art, W ashington A s the inscription under his signature on this painting indicates, B ro oke studied in Paris under Bonnat. The scene depicted was painted from life in B ro oke’s home tow n o f W arrenton, Virginia.

59 G E O R G E F U L L E R (1822-84) Negro Funeral, 18 8 1 O il on canvas, 17 3 4 x 3 0 M useum o f Fine Arts, Boston

Fuller, w h o was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, began painting in 18 4 1. He w orked in Boston from 1842 to 1847, at w hich time he m oved to N ew Y o rk to continue his studies. He spent six months in Europe in i860. U p on his return to this country, he took over the fam ily farm at Deerfield where he did very little painting fo r a period o f some fifteen years. H e resumed his artistic career in 1875, m oving to Boston the follow ing year. The original title o f the present picture was Negro Funeral, Alabama.

60 G E O R G E I N N E S S (1825-94) Sunset in Georgia, 1890 O il on canvas, 18 X 24 M ilw aukee Art Center (Layton Collection) Inness was born in N ew burgh, N ew Y o rk and spent his youth in N e w Y o rk C ity and near N ew ark, N e w Jersey. H e first exhibited in 1844 at the N ational Academ y and was elected a member o f the Academ y in 1853. Inness traveled to Europe a number o f times during his life, first in 1847 and again in 1850 and 1854; from 1870 to 1874 he lived in Italy and France. He spent most o f the remainder o f his life in N ew Y o rk C ity and M ontclair, N ew Jersey.

61 E D W A R D L A M S O N H E N R Y (18 4 1-19 19 ) Sharpening the Saw, c. 1887 O il on canvas, 16 X 12 N ew Y o rk State Historical Association, Cooperstown Henry was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Orphaned, he was taken at the age o f seven to live w ith cousins in N e w Y o rk . H e received his first art education at the age o f fourteen. In 1858 H enry w ent to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academ y; he exhibited his first painting at the National Academ y o f Design the follow ing year. A fter spending the years 1860-62 in Europe, H enry settled in N e w Y o rk where he was elected a member o f the N ational Academ y in 1869. He went abroad again in 18 7 1, ’ 75 and ’ 8 1-82. From the middle o f the 1880s until the end o f his life, H enry spent winters in N e w Y o r k C ity and summers at his home in Cragsm oor near Ellenville, N e w Y o rk , w here the present picture, one o f a large number by H enry in which N egroes are depicted, was painted.

62

F R A N C I S C O A T E S J O N E S (1857-1932) The Orchard O il on canvas, 20 34 X 14% B o w d o in College Museum o f Art, Brunswick, Maine Bo rn in Baltim ore, Jones studied at the Ecole des Beaux-A rts in Paris. He became a m em ber o f the National Academ y in 1894.

63 T H O M A S P . A N S H U T Z ( 18 5 1- 19 12 ) Aunt Hannah, c. 1888 O il on panel, 12 3^ X 9 3^ T h e D etro it Institute o f Arts Anshutz became a student o f Thom as Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academ y in 1876, an instructor assisting Eakins in 18 8 1, and ultimately succeeded him in 1886. In 1909 Anshutz was made head o f the Academ y.

64 H E N R Y O . T A N N E R (1859 -19 37) The Banjo Lesson, 1893 O il on canvas, 4 8 X 3 5 H am pton Institute, Ham pton, Virginia (Gift o f M r. R o b ert O gden, 1894) Tanner w as a student o f Thom as Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academ y. He later w ent to Paris w here he studied in the Academie Julien. His w o rk consists m ainly o f religious subjects.

65 JO H N

S I N G E R S A R G E N T (1856-19 25)

The Bathers, 19 17 W ater-color, 1 5 ^ X 2 0 % W orcester A rt Museum B o rn in Florence o f American parents, Sargent became interested in painting at a very early age. His first important teacher was Carolus D uran in Paris, w ith w h om he studied from 1874 to 1876. Sargent’s w ork met w ith im m ediate success and he

opened his ow n studio in Paris in 1 881. In 1884 he m oved to London, which was to remain his chief place o f residence for the rest o f his life. The leading society por­ traitist o f his time, Sargent also did murals for the Boston Public Library and the Museum o f Fine Arts. As a watercolorist, he was greatly admired fo r the virtuosity o f his technique. The Bathers was painted w hile the artist was a guest o f M r. Jam es Deering at his estate, Vizcaya, near M iam i, Florida, in the spring o f 19 17 .

66 F R E D E R IC R E M IN G T O N

(186 1-1909 )

Leaving the Canyon, 1894 W ater-color, 3 0 X 3 2 M . Knoedler & C o ., Inc., N e w Y o rk R em in gton was born in Canton, N ew Y o r k and attended Y ale A rt School and the A rt Students’ League in N ew Y o rk . He w ent W est and became a cow boy and rancher, but then turned to w riting about and painting the Frontier. This picture depicts an incident in the story, A Hot Trail, by Pow hatan C lark in the Cosmopoli­ tan magazine o f O ctober 1894, in which N egro soldiers from the First C avalry R egim en t carry a w ounded Apache prisoner.

67 R O B E R T H E N R I (1865-1929) Sylvester, 19 14 O il on canvas, 3 2 X 2 6 Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., N ew Y o rk Henri, w ho was born in Cincinnati, studied at the Pennsylvania A cadem y o f Fine Arts and in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academ ie Julien. His real teachers, however, w ere Hals, Velasquez, Courbet and M anet, w hose w o rk he studied in European museums. He began his career as a painter and teacher in Philadelphia in 18 9 1. He soon became the leader o f a group o f painters know n as the Philadelphia Realists. Around the turn o f the century the group migrated to N e w Y o rk , w here it was tagged the “ Ashcan School” because o f the nature o f the subject matter, often slum life, the members chose to depict. Henri, w ho was par­ ticularly interested in national and racial types w hom he called “ M y People,” painted several v ivid portraits o f Negroes am ong w hich are W illie Gee (N ew ark Museum) and E va Green (W ichita A rt Museum). Sylvester was painted m ore than once b y Henri in La Jolla, California in 19 14 .

68 R E G I N A L D M A R S H (1898-1954) Negroes on Rock aw ay Beach, 1934 Tem pera on com position board, 30 X 4 0 W hitn ey M useum o f American A rt, N e w Y o rk (Gift o f M r. and M rs. Albert Hackett) Marsh began his career as an illustrator and cartoonist w ith the N ew York Daily News, Vanity Fair and The N ew Yorker. He later studied painting at the A rt Stu­ dents’ League, w here George Luks and Jo h n Sloan w ere tw o o f his teachers. Marsh frequently depicted N egroes w ith the same gusto that characterizes all his studies o f people in various walks o f life in N e w Y o rk .

69 TH O M AS HART BEN TO N

(1889-

Plantation Road, 1944 O il on canvas, 2 8 1^ X 3 9 % M useum o f Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh Benton, w ho is w id ely know n fo r his murals in the M issouri State Capitol, the Trum an Library and elsewhere, frequently has depicted scenes like the present one drawn from the experiences o f his travels in the M idw est and South.

70 A L E X A N D E R B R O O K (1898Georgia Jungle, 1939 O il on canvas, 3 5 X 5 0 M useum o f Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh B ro ok w o n the Carnegie International A w ard in 1939 w ith this painting done from a scene he had observed outside Savannah. He is a member o f the National A cadem y and the National Institute o f Arts and Letters.

71 W IL L IA M H . JO H N S O N

(19 0 1-

G irl in a Green Dress, 1930 O il on canvas, 24 X 19 H arm on Foundation, Inc., N ew Y o rk

B orn in Florence, South Carolina, Johnson aspired to be an artist from a very early age. A t twenty he was able to enroll at the National Academ y in N e w Y o rk where he studied for five years. Essentially prim itive in his stylistic tendencies, Johnson went abroad between 1926 and 1929, w here he came into contact w ith various as­ pects o f modern art, including Expressionism. In 1930 he received the G old A w ard in A rt from the H arm on Foundation and spent some time at hom e in South C aro­ lina, during w hich time the present portrait probably was painted. R eturning to Europe later that year, he married the Danish ceramic and textile artist Holcha Krake. He lived and w orked in his w ife’s home tow n o f Kertem inde until 1932, w hen the couple began to travel in Europe and Tunisia. O n a visit to Oslo in 193 5, Johnson met Edvard M unch, the great N orw egian Expressionist, w hose art w as to have an important influence on part o f Johnson’s later w ork, particularly in the print medium. Johnson was in the United States between 1938 and 1946. H e made a last trip to Denm ark in 1946, but returned in ill health to N e w Y o rk , w here he has been hospitalized since 1947.

72 E D M U N D A R C H E R (1904Howard Patterson o f the “ Harlem Yankees,” 1940 O il on canvas, 341^X 293^ W hitney M useum o f Am erican Art, N ew Y ork Archer, w ho was born in Richm ond, V irginia, studied at the U niversity o f V ir­ ginia, the A rt Students’ League in N ew Y o rk , and in Europe. H e has been the re­ cipient o f several im portant awards and his w ork is represented in the collections o f m any leading museums in the United States.

73 J A C O B L A W R E N C E ( 19 17 And the Migrants Keep Coming, 1940-41 Tem pera on com position board, 1 2 X 1 8 Th e M useum o f M odern Art, N ew Y o rk (Gift o f M rs. D avid M . Levy) B orn in Atlantic C ity , Lawrence studied at the Harlem A rt W orkshop and the Am erican Artists School; he w orked for the Federal A rt Project in 1939-40. T h e present picture is the last in a series o f sixty panels (the thirty even numbers o f

w hich are in the M useum o f M odern A rt and thirty odd numbers in the Phillips C ollection, W ashington) entitled “ The M igration o f the N egro .” These scenes depict the tw o w aves o f N egro migrants w h o left the South to w o rk in the N orth in 19 16 - 19 , to relieve the labor shortage resulting fro m W orld W ar 1, and in 19 2 1- 2 3 , when new im m igration laws curtailed the entry o f European labor. In recent years Law rence has, am ong many projects, done a series o f paintings dealing w ith the theme o f Integration.

74 H O R A C E P IP P IN

(1888-1946)

The H oly Mountain, No. 3, 1945 O il, 25 X 30 Joseph H . Hirshhorn Collection, N ew Y o rk Pippin w as born in W est Chester, Pennsylvania and spent his early life w orking on a farm , in a coal yard, and as a porter. H e was seriously w ounded in W orld W ar 1 and later, though untrained, began to fulfill a long-felt desire to paint. His w ork was soon recognized for its pow erful directness and Pippin has been justly acclaimed as one o f the leading prim itive painters o f the twentieth century. His paintings o f The H oly Mountain recall E dw ard Hicks’s (1780-1849) o f The Peaceable Kingdom and w ere inspired b y the same passage from Isaiah. In reference to this theme, Pippin said: “ It came to m y mind because the whole w o rld is in such trouble, and in reading the Bible (Isaiah xi, 6) it says that there w ill be peace in the land. I f a man kn ow s nothing but hard times, he w ill paint them, fo r he must be true to him ­ self, but even that man m ay have a dream, an ideal— and ‘H oly M ountain’ is m y answer to such dream ing” (Selden R od m an , Horace Pippin, A Negro Painter in America, N e w Y o rk , 1947, p. 5).

75 B E N SH A H N

(1898-

The Church is the Union Hall, 1946 Tem pera on board, 2 0 X 16 M rs. H oke Levin, Detroit, M ichigan Shahn, w h o was born in K ovn o, Lithuania, came to this country in 1906. He w as apprenticed to a lithographer from 19 13 to 19 17 . A fter studying botany at N ew Y o r k U niversity and C ity College, he began to study art at the National Academ y

in 1922. Shahn w ent abroad and studied at the Grande Chaum iere in Paris and traveled w idely in Europe and N orth Africa. R eturning to this country in 1929, he soon became an artist o f social protest, one o f his most famous series o f works (19 3 1-3 2 ) having to do w ith Sacco and Vanzetti. H e collaborated w ith D iego R ivera on murals fo r R ockefeller Center in 1933 and later in the decade w orked on several Federal projects doing murals fo r public buildings. In m ore recent years, Shahn’s style has become more symbolic, although much o f his w o rk is still orient­ ed towards current issues.

76 J O S E P H H I R S C H ( 19 10 The Lynch Family, 1947-48 O il on canvas, 3 5 X 3 3 Nelson Gallery— Atkins M useum , Kansas C ity (Friends o f A rt Collection) Born in Philadelphia, Hirsch has w on several important grants, including two from the Guggenheim Foundation, 1942-43 and ’43-44, and one from the Am eri­ can Academ y o f Arts and Letters, 1947. His w ork is w idely represented in public institutions throughout the country. Hirsch’s painting, Two Men, in the collection o f the Museum o f M odern Art, depicting a N egro and a w hite w orker, was voted first place by visitors to the 1939 N ew Y o rk W orld’s Fair.

77 R O B E R T G W A T H M E Y (19 0 3Shanties, 19 51 O il on canvas, 3 6 X 30 V irginia Museum o f Fine Arts, R ichm ond (Gift o f M rs. A nthony W ilson, 1962) G w athm ey, w h o was born in R ichm on d, V irginia, has been the recipient o f awards from numerous organizations including the Carnegie Institute, 1942; the R osen w ald Foundation, 1944; and a grant from the Am erican A cadem y o f Arts and Letters, 1946. His w ork is represented in most o f the principal museums in the U nited States.

78 R A P H A E L S O Y E R (1899City Children, c. 1955 O il on canvas, 5 0 X 6 0 A rnold W eissberger, N ew Y o rk Soyer w as born in Russia and came to this country in 19 12 . He studied at C ooper U nion, the National Academ y and the A rt Students’ League. His tw o brothers, Moses and Isaac, are also painters. Raphael’s w ork consists m ainly o f sensitive and perceptive studies o f people observed in the activities o f everyday life.

79 A N D R E W W Y E T H (19 17 Granddaughter, 1956 D ry brush, 1 7 X 2 3 M r. and M rs. R o b ert M ontgom ery, N e w Y o rk W yeth is the son and pupil o f the noted illustrator and painter, N . C . W yeth (18 8 2-19 4 5 ). Since his first exhibition in 1937 at the M acbeth Gallery in N ew Y o rk (from which every picture was sold), W yeth ’ s w o rk in tempera and dry brush has w on universal acclaim from both the critics and the public. His paintings are in the collections o f nearly every m ajor museum in this country, and among his m any awards is the Medal o f Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

W yeth has frequently painted N egro subjects. Three o f the most notable are A Crow F lew By (The M etropolitan Museum o f A rt), That Gentleman (Dallas M u­ seum o f Fine Arts) and Granddaughter.

80 J A C K L E V I N E (1915Birmingham, 1963 O il on canvas, 72 X 78 M r. and M rs. Charles Benton, Evanston, Illinois Levine w as born in Boston and studied first under H arold Zim m erm an, w ith w hom he cam e into contact at the R o x b u ry (Mass.) Jew ish C om m u n ity Center, and later w ith D enm an R oss, a Professor in the H arvard Fine A rts Department. Levin e’s Feast o f Pure Reason o f 1937 (The M useum o f M odern A rt), a devastating portrayal o f crooked politicians, is a landmark o f twentieth-century Am erican painting.

ILLUSTRATIONS

2. J O H N S I N G L E T O N c o p l e y , W atson and the Shark

3 . w i n t h r o p c h a n d l e r , R iver Scene with Figures

DETAIL

4.

u n k n o w n

a rtist

,

Alexander Spotswood Payne and his Brother, Jo h n R obert Dandridge Payne, with their Nurse

5. R a l p h

earl

,

Gentleman w ith N egro Attendant

DETAIL

7. U N K N O W N A R T I S T , S y or C y Gilliat, N egro Banjo Player

9. C h a r l e s w i l l s o n p e a l e , Portrait o f Y a rro w M am out

io .

jo h n

b

.

m a r tin

,

Portrait o f Jam es (Armistead) Lafayette

ii.

jerem iah

h a r d y

,

Portrait o f Abraham Hanson

13 - U N K N O W N A R T I S T , Portrait o f W illiam W hipper

14 -

u n k n o w n

a rtist

,

Enigm atic Foursome

15 - C h r i s t i a n

m a y r

,

Kitchen B all at W hite Sulphur Springs

16.

Na

than iel

jo c e l y n

,

Portrait o f Cinque

17 . U N K N O W N A R T I S T , Lady in a Fine Scarf

19 .

w illiam

S I D N E Y m o u n t , T he Pow er o f M usic

20.

W IL L IA M SIDNEY m o u n t ,

California News

2 3 . W I L L I A M S I D N E Y m o u n t , T he Banjo Player

24. J A M E S G. C L O N N E Y , Sleeping N egro

25. J A M E S G. C L O N N E Y , The M ilitia Training

27. R i c h a r d

caton

w oodville

, s r . , ^Var N ew s from M exico

29. e y r e c r o w e , Slave M arket, Richm ond, Virginia

30. R o b e r t

du ncanso n

, Uncle T o m and Little E va

3 1 . U N K N O W N A R T I S T , Portrait o f Thom as Bronk

32.

w illiam

matthew

prior

, Three Sisters o f the Coplan Fam ily

3 3 . T H O M A S W A T E R M A N w o o d , Moses, the Baltim ore N ew s Vendor

i&ic 34. E a s t m a n J o h n s o n , N egro B o y

36. E a s t m a n

jo h n so n

, Portrait o f a Negress

4 i.

aaron

e

. d a r l i n g , Portrait o f M rs. Jo h n Jones

A 'V .

40. a a r o n e . d a r l i n g , Portrait o fjo h n Jones

39-

thomas

sully

, Portrait o f Edw ard Jam es R o y e

42.

w in slo w

hom er

, A rm y Boots

43- w i n s l o w

hom er,

Captured Liberators

44- w i n s l o w

hom er,

T aking a Sunflower

to

Teacher

4 5 - w i n s l o w h o m e r , The Visit o f the Mistress

46.

w in s lo w

h o m er

,

Sunday M orning in Virginia

4 7 - W I N S L O W H O M E R , Carnival

48.

E D W I N FORBES,

Mess B o y Asleep

49-

frank

bu c h ser

,

G uitar Player

5 1.

THOMAS EAKINS,

Negress

5 2 . T H O M A S E A K I N S , W histling for Plover

54 - T H O M A S e a k i n s ,

N egro B o y Dancing

53.

thom as

eakins,

N egro B o y D ancing (Preparatory Study)

55 - T H O M A S E A K I N S , The R e d Shawl

56.

th o m a s

e a k in s

,

Portrait o f Henry O . Tanner

THOMAS

h o v en d en

,

Their Pride

$8.

r ic h a rd

norris

br o o k e

,

A Pastoral Visit

59.

GEORGE F ULLER,

N egro Funeral

6 1.

edw ard

lamson

h e n r y

,

Sharpening the Saw

62 .

fran cis

co ates

jo n es,

The Orchard

6 3 . T H O M A S p. a n s h u t z , Aunt H a n n a h

64.

HENRY

o.

TANNER,

The Banjo Lesson

65.

J O H N SINGER

sa rg en t

,

The Bathers

66

.

FREDERIC RE M ING TON,

Leaving

the

Canyon

67.

ROBERT HENRI,

Sylvester

68.

Re g i n

ald

m a r sh

,

Negroes on R o ck aw ay Beach

69 .

T HO MA S HART b e n t o n ,

Plantation R oad

70.

ALEXANDER

b r o o k

,

G eorgia Jungle

7 1.

w illiam

h. jo h n s o n ,

G irl in

a

Green Dress

72.

edmund

a rc h er

,

H ow ard Patterson o f the “ H arlem Yankees�

73- J a c o b

Law rence,

And the Migrants K eep C om ing

74- H o r a c e

pippin

,

The H o ly M ountain, N o. 3

7 5 - b e n s h a h n , T h e Church is the Union H a l l

76.

JOSEPH HIRSCH,

The Lynch Fam ily

77.

ROBERT

g w a t h m e y

,

Shanties

78.

RAPHAEL S O Y E R ,

C ity Children

7 9 - A N D R E W W Y E T H , Granddaughter

8o. J A C K L E VI NE ,

Birm ingham , 1963

DESIGNED

BY

LEONARD

BASKIN

S E T I N M O N O T Y P E B E M B O AT THE STINEHOUR

PRESS,

PRINTED

BY

T H E M E R I D E N GRAVURE COMPANY