Edward Mitchell Bannister

Edward Mitchell Bannister (* 1833 in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, † January 9, 1901 in Providence, Rhode Iceland, United States) was an African American painter whose Tonalism and mainly pastoral themes much of his admiration for Millet and the French school of Barbizon owe.

In the late 1840s Bannister moved to New England, where he remained for the rest of his life. While Bannister was well known in the artistic community of his adopted home of Providence and was admired in the other East Coast art world ( he won a bronze medal for his large oil painting " Under the Oaks " at the 1876er Philadelphia Centennial ), he was for nearly a century largely forgotten what a number of reasons, but especially racial had.

With the advent of African-American civil rights movement in the 1970s, his work was celebrated again and collected. 1978 dedicated the Rhode Iceland College 's Art Gallery in Bannister's name with the exhibition: " Four From Providence ~ Alston, Bannister, Jennings & Prophet". This event was attended by many important political figures of the time and commented on and supported by the Rhode Iceland Committee for Humanities and the Rhode Iceland Historical Society. Events such as this, on the whole cultural landscape, make sure that his life and work will not be forgotten.

Although he is known for his idealized landscape painting and seascapes in the first place, he also painted portraits, biblical and mythological scenes and genre scenes. He was an intellectual self-taught, his literary taste was typical of an educated Victorian painters such as Spenser, Virgil, Ruskin and Tennyson, their works, much of its iconography is derived.

Bannister died in a prayer meeting at his church. He is buried in the North Burial Ground in Providence.

Important works

• The Newsboy [ Boston Newsboy ] [ Newspaper Boy ] (1869, oil, 30 1/8 x 25 inches; NMAA, Washington DC)
• Sabin Point, Narragansett Bay (1885, oil on canvas; Gardner House, Providence, Rhode Iceland )
• Palmer River (1885, oil on canvas Private collection )

Bibliography

• Anne Louise Avery, The Veiled Landscape: Space and Place in the Art and Life of Edward Mitchell Bannister [ Unpublished PhD thesis, 2007]
• Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present, ( Pantheon, 1993, ISBN 0-394-57016-2 ).
• Juanita Marie Holland and Corrine Jennings, Edward Mitchell Bannister [ exhibition catalog ] (New York: Kenkeleba House, 1992, ISBN 0-8109-6811-8 )