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

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The stringent enforcement of the repressive laws relevant to proof of freedom and citizenship resulted in the exit or approximately 1,500 Blacks to Canada after 1830 where they founded the town of Wilberforce, near London, Ontario, a city named for the famous British abolitionist, William Wilberforce of Holl, England, whose fiery voice against slavery in Great Britian. Young Duncanson accompanied his father to Canada as it was the elder Duncanson's desire that his son should be well-educated in the arts and have the benefit of living in a society where racial prejudice was not so widespread.

The city of Cincinnati was considered by most Americans to be the "gateway to the West". It had to live up to its name of cultural interest so art was patronized by successful businessmen who emulated the societical patterns of their wealthy competitors back East. Numerous portrait painters were trained there as they were needed to record the wealth and success of the merchant-class whose businesses flourished with the trade along the Ohio River. Many of these artist later turned to landscape painting and it is assumed that Duncanson, upon his return to the city in 1841, was greatly inspired by the success of these artists who were the ardent followers of landscape artist Thomas Cole.

Cole had worked in and about the city of Cincinnati in the mid and late 1820's and later founded what came to be known as the Hudson River School of Painting. The style of painting associated with the school required a keen look at the landscape by the artist and an affirmative reaction to the romantic beauty that abound in nature. Duncanson was greatly inspired by Cole's work and took for himself the task of becoming a prophet of beauty as he sought to paint the hills and valleys that spoke patriotically and poetically of "America

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the Beautiful". It seems fair to say that Duncanson not only idealized the land but he also [struck: can be said to have] lyricized it with a romantic version which bordered on fantasy and at the same time recorded a naturalistic truth about the word which would have tested the genius of the greatest craftsmen of his day.

During the years 1845-1859, Duncanson painted and worked in the cities of Detroit and Cincinnati. He tried his hand earlier as a portrait artist and this endeavor met with some success. But his portraits could by no stretch of the imagination be considered [to be] his best work. He was commissioned by noted families such as the Longworths and the Berthelets to render their likeness in large canvases that are still in the possession of their descendants and in several mid-western museums.

In 1848 Nicholas Longworth, a wealthy cincinnati lawyer, commissioned Duncanson to do a series of "wall decorations" for his mansion called Belmont, now the Taft Museum.16 [19?] These murals put Duncanson ahead in matters of contact with able patrons of the arts. He then used these infleunces to enhance his own studies in art outside the United States. But prior to his travel abroad he rediscovered America just as Thomas Cole and other members of the Hudson River school had done. Between 1850 and 1853 Duncanson travelled to North Carolina and Pennsylvania in search of landscape scenes that appealed to his sense of design. [struck: and lyrical rendering that he alone seemed so capable of delivering in painterly form. His now famous painting] Blue Hole, Flood Waters, Little Miami River was executed during this period and shows a [struck: the] maturity of style and refinement [struck: ness] of technique that had come about as a result of the serious study of

[line] 19 Porter, James A., Art in America, "Robert S. Duncanson, Midwestern Romantic-Realist", Vol. 39, No. 3, October, 1951, p. 110.

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American art and the friendly associations the artist had made with the landscape masters of his day. The Cincinnati City Directory listed him as a daguerrotype artist in the year 1853. Evidence of his familiarity with the camera can be found in his View of Cincinnati, Ohio From Covington, Kentucky, one of the few surviving paintings of a city scene in early 19th century American art. [crossed-out: 17] 20 It was during the year 1853 that Duncanson first travelled to Europe where he sought the company of another Cincinnati artist working in Italy by the name of William Sonntag. Duncanson's trip had been made possible by the financial support he [crossed-out: had] received from the Anti-slavery League. During his stay in Italy, his work shifted in content and technical competency and [crossed-out: was then] became more closely identified with classical subjects similar to those done by Sonntag and Cole. His several landscape versions of the classical ruins of Pompeii and other popular 19th century Italian [crossed-out: ruins]scenes show his devotion to the ideals of the rebirth of neo-classic themes and a continuing interest in a romantic treatment of landscape regardless of its geographic location. The next side of the indefatigable Duncanson [crossed-out: 's artistry] appears as a result of his love [crossed-out: of] and thorough knowledge of English literature. In 1861 he began working on a large composition which had been inspired by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's literary work, "Lotus Eaters". [crossed-out: 18] 21 Tennyson is said to have seen the work and reportedly looked upon it with great favor. The artist's return to the United States in 1862 was not without incident as he was duly reminded of the conflicts then persisting in American society regarding the value of human worth; the retention of slavery or its abolition, which culminated in the Civil War. He [typed line] [crossed-out: 17] 20The Cincinnati Museum, Robert S. Duncanson: A Centennial Exhibition, Essay by Guy McElroy, March 16 - April 30, 1972, p. 11. [crossed-out: 18] 21Porter, Op. Cit., p. 134.

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[crossed-out: -20-] 25 managed to confine his sketching and painting experiences during this period to far away places such as Vermont and Minnesota , see figure (VALLEY OF LAKE PEPIN, MINNESOTA), thus escaping a real physical sight of the war at hand. In 1863, Duncanson returned to Europe again sponsored by the Anti-Slavery League spending several years in Scotland, the birthplace of his father. There he exhibited: "The Lotos Eaters" and met the Duchess of Sutherland and received praise in the LondonArt Journal from an English critic who characterized Duncanson's art as being favorably equal to any landscape artist's in England. Of this painting the critic wrote:

" The Land of the Lotos Eaters; America has long maintained supremacy in landscape art, perhaps indeed its landscape artists surpass those of England. Certainly we have no painter who can equal Church, we are not exaggerating if we affirm that the production under notice may compete with any of the modern British Schools Duncanson has established high fame in the United States and in Canada" 22

Earlier praise for Duncaanson's talent as a major American artist comes from this account of the high esteem in which he was held by a leading critic of the CINCINNATI GAZETTE:

"Mr. Duncason has long enjoyed the enviable reputation of being the best landscape painter in the West, and his latest effort cannot fail to raise him still higher in the estimation of the art loving public. He has not only wooed but won his favorite muse, and now finds ample repayment for his labor of a lifetime, in the achievement of a more brilliant success than has attended most of his co-peers..." 23

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22 Lonron Art Journal, January 1, 1886. 23 The Cincinnati Gazette, May 30, 1861.

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Early during the month of June, a speciall notice concerning public acceptance of THE LOTOS EATERS appears in the Gazette in which the following observation is made:

"Mr. Duncason's painting.... is attracting the attention of the art connaisseurs and critics of Cincinnati to a deservedly large extent. None who have yet seen it have failed to bestow upon it an amount of praise which an artist of much more extended reputation than Mr. Duncanson might justly feel proud... Let the art lovers of Gotham View and study the picture now on view at the Opera House, and they will not hesitate to enroll the name of the author in the annals of artistic fame..." 24

Several writers have brought to our attention the notion that Duncanson all but divorced himself from the social conflicts that came about because of his race. During his lifetime, the whole of the American public was keen ly aware of those class distinctions associated with being born a mulatto. Duncanson's mother was black, his father was from Scotland. While it is true to make the assumption that Duncason's societical position, regarded by many whites as being the plight of "the tragic mulatt," caused him to react rather sensitively to some of the questions that were asked him about the role of a black artist, one must at the same time not that he did appeal to supporters of abolitionist causes such as the Anti-Slavery League for the furtherance of his own career in art while he was yet a young man. Nicholas Longworth gave ardent support to his efforts to travel abroad in 1853 and sent letters of introduction in his behalf to American artist then living in Italy 25

Duncanso's work signalled the beginning of a mature style of expression among Black American artists that was destined to erase some of the myths

--------------------------------- 24 The Cincinnati Gazette, June 3, 1861. 25 Driskell, David C., Amistad II: Afro-American Art, New York, American Missionary Association, p. 40.

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