MS01.01.03.B01.F25.051

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Thomas Eakins employed Blacks as models for portraits
some of whom he painted as individuals of character (SLIDE #62)
[u]Portrait of his Pupil - Henry O. Tanner[/u] (SLIDE #63) [u]The
Negress [/u] 1869 (SLIDE #64). [u]Whistling for Plover[/u] shows a black man waiting in the marshes to aim his gun at the ducks that are to answer
his call. [u]Negro Boy Dancing[/u] (SLIDE #65) shows one of the few
genre scenes executed by Eakins. (SLIDE #66) A Study for [u]Negro Boy Dancing[/u] shows how observant the artist was to capture even
the emotion on the mouth of the young dancer who bucks it out
to the theme of the banjo.

Black American artists during the 19th century painted
few images of other blacks. Robert S. Duncanson's (SLIDE #67)
[u]Uncle Tom and Little Eva[/u] provides no relief from the stereotype
image often associated with black lifestyle and the unsympathetic
literature of the period. Edward Mitchell Bannister's (SLIDE #68)
[u]Newspaper Boy[/u] or [u]Mulatto Boy[/u] is an excellent example of
a portrait by a black artist. But Henry O. Tanner's celebrated (SLIDE #69)
[u]Banjo Lesson[/u], 1893 provides us with an important definition of
the Black experience as seen by a black artist. (SLIDE #70) His
[u]Thankful Poor[/u], and the [u]Banjo Lesson[/u] are two of the major
compositions completed by the artist prior to his going to Europe to
paint, after which he turned principally to the interpretation
of religious themes that were void of black subjects.

Finally it may be of interest to note that John Singleton Sargent,
Frederick Remington, Thomas Moran and George Inness were
among the many American artists who depicted Blacks in their art