April Showers Bring May Flowers and. . .

A Question for Joan of Art!

Dear Joan of Art:

I'm a sophomore in high school and I need to do a report on an artist I like. When I visited the museum, I really liked a painting showing the beautiful rainbow that often follows spring showers. The scene was very peaceful. Do you know the name of the painting and the artist of the work? Can you tell me about the artist?

Dear Visitor:

The painting you enjoyed is Landscape with Rainbow (1859) by Robert S. Duncanson. Duncanson was the son of free black parents. He was a housepainter and carpenter, following his family's trades. However, Duncanson broke tradition and became "the most accomplished African American painter in the United States from 1850 to 1860."

The following information on Duncanson is from Regenia Perry's Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1992) and may help you with your report:

"It is not known when or where Duncanson received his early artistic training, but by 1842 he had begun exhibiting in Cincinnati. In 1853 Duncanson made his first European trip, which was apparently financed by an abolitionist organization from Ohio. He visited England, France, and Italy, and may have traveled to Germany. In England, Duncanson was especially attracted to the landscapes of Claude Lorrain and J. M. W. Turner. Duncanson's trip to Europe probably did not last longer than a year as he returned to Cincinnati in 1854 and became the proprietor of a photography studio. But by the following year he had switched from photography to painting full time.

Duncanson's paintings may be divided into five categories: portraits, regional landscapes, landscapes inspired by literature, still lifes, and murals.

Sometime in 1849 Duncanson established a studio in Detroit where he had been active as early as 1846. His artistic activities were favorably noted in both Cincinnati and Detroit, where he worked throughout his career. Duncanson was also at one time associated with the prominent African-American photographer J. P. Ball in Cincinnati. Ball employed Duncanson to execute finished oil paintings from daguerreotypes.

During the early 1860s Duncanson traveled north, painting and sketching in Minnesota and Vermont, and crossing into Canada. Duncanson's second trip to Europe, as well as his Canadian sojourn, were motivated by his increasing unhappiness in the United States and a supposed desire to leave. In 1861 or 1862 Duncanson went to Scotland. His name is not listed in the Cincinnati or Detroit city directories from 1864 to 1866, and it is likely that he wished to leave the United States during the Civil War. By 1867 Duncanson had returned to this country and began exhibiting works directly inspired by his European travels. He made a final trip to Scotland in the years 1870 to 1871, and completed a number of paintings during his stay. Back in the United States by the summer of 1871, Duncanson exhibited his Scottish paintings with remarkable success. By all indications Duncanson's career was flourishing, and his paintings commanded up to five hundred dollars each, a very high sum for the time.

Unfortunately, when his career seemed brightest, he succumbed to emotional illness. His mental collapse occurred during the summer of 1872 while the artist was arranging an exhibition of his works in Detroit. He was hospitalized for three months at the Michigan State Retreat, and on December 21, 1872, he died."

I hope this information is helpful.

Joan of Art

Source: Regenia A. Perry. Free within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art in Association with Pomegranate Art Books, 1992).

Pictured: Robert S. Duncanson, (1821/1822–1872), Landscape with Rainbow,1859, oil, 30 1/8 x 52 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Leonard and Paula Granoff.