Robert S. Duncanson altered not only 19th century art, but also 19th century attitudes.
Duncanson, the first black American artist to receive international recognition, painted “Landscape with Classical Ruins,” on display at the Walters Art Museum.
The Walters received the landscape in a one-year exchange program with the Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio.
“The painting gets you to wonder about the spirit of Duncanson and invites you to contemplate his story,” said the director of the Walters Art Museum, Gary Vikan. “Look at the painting with two different eyes ? it?s a window into art as well as social change in the mid-19th century.”
Duncanson was the son of a freed slave from Virginia and a Scottish-Canadian woman, said Bill Johnston, curator of 18th and 19th century art at the Walters.
The self-taught artist honed his skills beside American artist William Louis Sonntag on a tour of Europe, Johnston said. During their time together, Duncanson and Sonntag focused on landscape paintings in the early 1850s.
In his relatively short career ? ended by a nervous breakdown at 51 ? Duncanson received an unprecedented level of acclaim, according to Johnston.
Works by British landscape painter, J.M. Turner, inspired Duncanson to incorporate European motifs into his art. Viewers can see Turner?s influence in “Landscape with Classical Ruins,” said Johnston. Romantic and imaginative, the painting depicts specific monuments from sites in Rome: the circular Temple of Sibyl and the rectangular Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.
“It?s an ideal Duncanson because of it has realistic details in a very imaginative scene,” Johnston said. “Although his brush strokes are looser than they were after the Civil War, the painting reflects Duncanson?s work throughout his career.”
Landscape with Classical Ruins
» Where: The Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St., Baltimore
» Cost: Free
» When: Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
410-547-9000, thewalters.org
