Edward B. Webster

African American artist Edward Webster grew up in Florence, South Carolina, where he was childhood friends with the painter William H. Johnson. In 1917 he moved to New York City, where he remained for his entire working life, delivering mail for the U.S. Postal Service. Upon retirement, Webster devoted himself exclusively to his lifelong passion for painting. In 1957 he left America to settle permanently in Spain, where he felt free from racial discrimination. The majority of Webster's paintings focus on religious themes, but he is also noted for his later paintings of the Spanish countryside and for his work depicting the lives of gypsies.