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ROBERT S. DUNCANSON (1821 - 1872)
Winter Landscape
.
Oil on canvas, 1860. 610x915 mm; 24x36 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed “Cinci., O” in oil,
lower right.
Provenance: obtained at Closson’s, Cincinnati, in the 1950s; thence by descent to a private Ohio
collection; obtained by the current owner in 2010.
Winter Landscape
is a large and wonderful example of important 19th-century painter Robert S.
Duncanson’s landscapes, and a wonderful early view of Cincinnati.The son of a biracial tradesman
fromVirginia, and the grandson of a freed slave, Duncanson apprenticed in his youth to his family’s
housepainting and carpentry business in Canada. Duncanson moved to Cincinnati in the 1840s. A
self-taught artist, he began his career by copying popular prints.
This painting has a complexity and richness to its composition with the various scenes of activity—
from the fishing hole in the foreground to the farmhouse in the center and the ice skaters and the
view of the city in the distance.The progression of scale and detail show the growing sophistication
and devices that Duncanson could employ in his landscapes by 1860. Duncanson painted a smaller
pair of landscapes,
Summer
and
Winter
, in 1849, that depict an abbreviated version of this scene—a
farm house with a much tighter view of the Ohio River in the two seasons (both were sold at
Sotheby’s, NewYork, in 2003).
In the 1850s, Duncanson received extensive patronage and commercial success, and by April of
1853, he was able to embark on a “Grand Tour” with fellow Cincinnati artist William Sonntag
through Europe.This two-year trip was a considerable achievement, the first such pilgrimage for an
African-American artist. By 1860, Duncanson was well established as an artist in Cincinnati and
had received numerous commissions. But the Civil War seemed imminent in December that year
when, according to Joseph D. Ketner, he also began his ambitious
Lotus Easters
, 1861. Inspired by
the Tennyson poem, it reflected his desire for peace. Ketner p. 17.
[75,000/100,000]