The Emergence of the African-American Artist

Résumé du livre

As his skill with a paintbrush grew, Duncanson developed into a sensitive painter of the picturesque and pastoral qualities that he found in the land. These works established him as the primary painter in the Ohio River valley during the 1850s and 1860s and contributed to the foundation of the Cincinnati landscape tradition. While employing the mainstream aesthetics of American landscape painting that would propel him to international recognition, he also imbued his landscapes with a veiled significance that was understood by the African-American community. His dream of an America free of racial oppression found expression in romantic landscapes of an exotic paradise. Even as he made his way in the previously all-white art world, he claimed the American landscape as part of the African-American experience.