Robert S. Duncanson

Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872)

Initially trained as a house painter, Duncanson settled in Cincinnati in 1841 and became a prolific landscapist. Two notable commissions launched his career: Cliff Mine, Lake Superior (1848) and the “Belmont” landscape murals (1850). The success that followed allowed him to travel extensively in Europe and exhibit with the American Art-Union (1850) and Western Art Union. Duncanson’s pastoral landscapes, executed in the tradition of the Hudson River School, metaphorically reference paradise and salvation and occasionally depict popular literary sources, including Tennyson’s Land of the Lotus Eaters and Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Important Source Material:

Parks, James Dallas. Robert S. Duncanson, 19th century Black romantic painter. Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, 1980.

Ketner, Joseph D. The Emergence of the African-American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson 1821-1872. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1993.

Ketner, Joseph D. Robert S. Duncanson “the spiritual striving of the freedman’s sons.” Catskill, NY: Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 2011.

NHS