MS01.01.03 - Box 02 - Folder 10 - Cultural History Research Inc. - Papers, 1963

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The tradition of rendering the likemess of an individual through the art of portraiture persisted well into the later quarter of the nineteenth century at which time the camera was making its way into the urban communities of the nation and was being received with acclaim. Among the first American artists to use the camera in combination with the medium of lithography was an artist from New Orleans by the name of Jules Lion. Since he was among the first artists to use the camera in America, it is believed that Lion introduced the Daguerrotype as an art form to the residents of the city of New Orleans. As early as 1840, the follwoing account of the artist's work appeared in a New Orleans newspaper:

"We are indebted to Mr. Lion of this city, for an examination of some very exquisite specimens of the Daguerrotype taken by him. They are views of objects familiar to the residents of New Orleans, such as the St. Louis Hotel, the Cathedral, the Levee, and a number o public edifices and the perfection of the process can be easily vested by comparing the solar copies with the originals. They are the 1st. speciments of drawing by the Dauguerreotype we have seen. Nothing can be more truly beautiful - The minutest object in the original is reproduced in the copy, and with the aid of a microscope, in a drawing of a few inches square, representing a building some sixty or seventy feet high, the inscription on the signs, the division between the bricks, the very insect that may have been found uponthe wall at the time the inscription was taken are rendered visible. It is a wonderful discovery - one, too, that will prove as useful as it is admirable. Mr. Lion intends exhibiting his drawings in public on Sunday next" 16

Lion was born in Paris and was schooled in the academic tradition in art. He was twenty-six years old when he arrived in New Orleans in 1836. He and Pointel Duportail conducted lectures on the Dauguerrotype with the notion of enhancing the developing business that he hoped to make the new art form. Lion is

16 NEW ORLEANS BEE, March 14, 1840, p.2

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listed in the City Directory of New Orleans in 1838 as [strikethrough: a] "professional artist [strikethrough: as he] "and had achieved a measure of success before coming to America as he was one of the youngest artists to exhibit in the Salon in 1831. It is assumed that he returned to Paris, the city [strikethrough: city of his birth] he never divorced himself from, between the years 1839 - 1940 during which time he was a pupil of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, the father of modern photography. Notice of his relocation to a larger studio [strikethrough: and] where the versatility of his artistry is ^ [again] signled out for a praise in The New Orleans Bee appeared [strikethrough: again] in 1843. It read as follows:

"On reference to our advertising columns it will be seen that MR. J. LION, is prepared to take likenesses by the Daguerrotype, or Lithographic process, at his rooms, #3, St. Charles Street. Mr. Lion is an artist of superior merit, of which anyone can convince himself by an examination of the specimens before his office door. As a Lithographist, he has, perhaps, nor any equal in the country. His portraits are distinguished for, their fidelity, correct drawing, and good taste. His Daguerreotype impressions are likewise very fine, and he possesses the art of coloring them - a process by which that faintness of outline which has been considered the chief objection to the Daguerrotype, is made to give place to a strong, bold and durable impression. Mr. Lion is well deserving of public patronage." 17

The writer for the New Orleans Bee, in which the above article appeared, makes no mention of lion/being listed in the City Directory as being a "free man of color". It would appear, from the praise that Lion received during his lifetime, that little attention was paid to the fact his being a mulatto [strikethrough: as] since his art was sought after by men of all ranks of society and ^ [he] received wide patronage from all segments of the community. At various intervals of time, Lion returned to Paris to visit with relatives and exhibit his new creations. HE was commissioned by the owner of the NEW ORLEANS BEE to

17 NEW ORLEANS BEE, November 25, 1843, p.2, col 4

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do a series of portraits of the men of the State Legislature of 1846 but he was unable to complete the project after the owener of THE BEE died. Lion did a series of small lithographs as studies ^ [for the Portraits] of the legislators which are presently located in the Historic New Orleans Collection. The most celebrated work by the artist is said to be [strikethrough: the] his PORTRAIT OF JOHN J. AUDUBON, the famous mulatto naturalist and illustrator of ornithology, in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum. The City Directory lists Lion as a portrait painter in 1860 living at 439 St. Claude. In 1866, he is listed in Gardner"s City Directory as having residency at 175 Frenchman Street. Later in the same year, THE BEE carried the following account of his death: [strikethrough: the same year]

"Died yesterday at 3:30 o'clock in the morning, Jules Lion, at the age of 56 years, native of France. The wake is being held at ... 507 St Jean Baptiste St,, between Francis and Union. Friends and acquaintes of his wife, also those of his brother-in law, Rufi Lambert and Alphonse Munoz, are invited to assist at his burial at 3:30 P.M." 18

18 NEW ORLEANS BEE, January 10, 1866

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eighteenth century attributed to ^ [Neptune] Thurston [ strikethrough: Morton, Scorpio Morehead] ^Scipio Moorehead and others of comparable skill. But few persons other than those who could be characterized as sympathetic masters were willing to permit [crossed out: B] black aspiring artists the [crossed out: chance] opportunity to test their skills in [crossed out: the leisure oriented arts of] painting and sculpture. Moreover, few people felt that Blacks had the intellectual ability to engage in any form of art which was not closely associated with labor. Margaret Just Butcher, writing on the subject of {crossed out: B] black acceptance by the white establishment in [inserted: ^ American] are summarized[crossed out: s] the situation in the following manner:

"The task of the early Negro artist was to prove to a skeptical world that the Negro could be an artist. That world did not know that the African has been a capable artist in his native culture and that, independent of European culture, he had build up his own techniques and traditions. It had the notion that for a Negro to aspire to the fine arts was ridiculous. Before 1865, any man or woman with artistic talent and ambition confronted an almost impossible barrier. Yet, in a ling period of trying apprenticeship, several Megro artist surmounted the artificial obstacles with sufficient success to disprove but not dispel the prevailing prejudice. [crossed out: 15] 15 [INSERT** arrow to (5 pages)]

Robert [crossed out: Ssott] Scott Duncanson was born of mixed parents in 1821 in New York State. [Written: His father, a Canadian by birth, was of Scottish descent.] At an early age he accompanied his family to the town where his mother had grown up, a village fifteen miles from Cincinnati now called Mt. Healthy. The City of Cincinnati, located in a strategic position [inserted: comma] neither North nor South, absorbed [inserted: comma] at that time [inserted: comma] much public opinion in regards to the question of slavery as it was still an issue yet unsettled in American society.

[crossed out: 15] 15 Butcher, Margaret Just., The Negro In American Culture (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1967)

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Duncanson was determined to become an artist of merit and his aspirations were to be the greatest landscape artist in America. Since the climate of art, and consequently its final valuation, is always affected by the physical environment from which its patronage is drawn, there existed, without a doubt, an ambivalent notion in the mind of the artist regarding his own acceptance as an artist of color in a city so readily identified with as many southern causes as were espoused by northern liberals. Duncan was fully aware of the politics of the day relevant to slavery and the question of full citizenship for all Americans regardless of color; thus, he kept abreast of all of the laws and policies pertaining to the malignant system of human bondage which was sanctioned by law in all of the Southern states. Prior to the year 1800, fugitive slaves had sought refuge in what was then called the Northwestern Territory because of the lack of enforcement of federal and state laws which required that a run-away slave be sent back to his previous owner. But with the influx of slaves coming north because of the success of the Undergroud Railroad, whites then saw the fugitive slave as a threat to their own economic security and rallied for the passage of "Black Laws" which were strictly binding and above all inhumanely repressive. These laws prohibited black people from settling in Ohio without proof of freedom. One law in particular required Blacks on entering the state to post a bond of $500 as assurance of good behavior and proper citizenship. Few people of color were able to secure [struck: come] such a large sum of money. Thus the black intellectual population which even at this early date counted writers, painters and musicians in its ranks, was relatively small in Cincinnati when Robert S. Duncanson sought to become a painter.

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