关于爱德华·米切尔·班尼斯特

班尼斯特画廊 was established in 1978 in honor of Edward Mitchell Bannister, 19世纪著名的非裔美国艺术家. 班尼斯特是普罗维登斯艺术界的杰出成员, founder of the Providence Art Club and a significant figure in the history of American landscape painting. Many of his paintings are on view at the National Museum of American Art.

The following is an excerpt from an exhibition titled Free Within Ourselves: African American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art:

Edward Mitchell Bannister's determination to become a successful artist was largely fueled by an inflammatory article he read in the New York Herald in 1867 that stated, "The Negro seems to have an appreciation for art while being manifestly unable to produce it.“具有讽刺意味的是, 不到十年之后, in 1876, Bannister was the first African American artist to receive a national award.

班尼斯特于1828年11月出生在圣. 安德鲁斯，新不伦瑞克，加拿大. 他的父亲是西印度群岛巴巴多斯人. 班尼斯特母亲的背景, 汉娜亚历山大班尼斯特, who lived in New Brunswick and whom Bannister credited with fostering his earliest artistic interests, 是未知的. 班尼斯特的父亲显然英年早逝, 1844年他母亲去世后, 他被寄养在新不伦瑞克省的一个白人家庭. Bannister left his foster home after several years and took a job at sea, 这是许多来自圣路易斯市的年轻人的习惯. 安德鲁斯.

In 1848 Bannister moved to Boston where he held a variety of menial jobs before he became a barber and eventually learned to paint. Bannister painted in the Boston Studio Building and also enrolled in several evening classes at Lowell Institute, 师从著名的雕塑家兼解剖学家. 威廉轮辋. 

Only a few of Bannister’s paintings from the 1850s and 1860s have survived, 防止对他在波士顿早期的风格进行评估. While Bannister lived in Boston he must have seen and been influenced by the Barbizon School-inspired paintings of William Morris Hunt who had studied in Europe and held numerous public exhibitions in Boston during the 1860's. American landscape painters were increasingly aware of the simple rustic motifs and pictorial poetry of French Barbizon paintings by Jean-Baptiste Corot, Jean-Francois Millet and Charles Francois Daubigny in the mid-19th century.

6月10日, 1857, 班尼斯特与克里斯蒂安娜·卡特结婚, 出生在北金斯敦的纳拉干西特印第安人, esball官方网. 这对夫妇没有孩子. 克里斯蒂安娜在波士顿做假发和发型师, and her esball官方网 background might have prompted the Bannisters to move from Boston to Providence, esball官方网, in 1870.

因为班尼斯特的艺术研究有限, 这很了不起, 事实上, 在他到达普罗维登斯后的五年内, one of his paintings was accepted into the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. The painting "Under The Oaks" received the first-prize bronze medal. Bannister related in considerable detail that the judges became indignant and originally wanted to "reconsider" the award upon discovering that Bannister was African American. The white competitors, however, upheld the decision and Bannister was awarded the bronze medal.

在费城百年博览会之后, Bannister's reputation grew and numerous commissions enabled him to devote all his time to painting. 他画了大量的风景画, 其中大部分描绘的是宁静, 用阴沉的色调和浓重的色调描绘的田园风光. While Bannister's initial influence probably stemmed from the Barbizon-inspired works of William Morris Hunt, his paintings are reflective of an artist who loved the quiet beauties of nature and represented them in a realistic manner. Bannister's middle-period landscapes of the 1870s were generally executed in broad masses of heavy impasto with few details. They also evoke a tranquil mood that became one of the hallmarks of Bannister's style. Later landscapes of the 1880s and 1890s employed a more gentle impasto and loosely applied broken color similar to Impressionist techniques.

Many of Bannister's landscapes are small and have darkened considerably with age. 他的画没有任何社会或种族色彩, and the small figures seen frequently in his landscapes appear to be white. 尽管班尼斯特的大部分画作都是风景画, 他也画肖像画, 图的研究, 宗教场景, 海景, 静物和流派题材. 班尼斯特主要被如画般的图案所吸引, 包括别墅, 城堡, 牛, 的黎明, 日落和小水域, and he portrayed nature as a calm and submissive force in his works.

尽管他的训练和经验有限, Bannister was among Providence's leading painters during the 1870s and 1880s. 他深受同胞们的爱戴和尊敬. 1月. 9, 1901, Bannister died while attending a prayer meeting at his church. 在他死后不久, the Providence Art Club mounted a memorial exhibition of 101 of Bannister's paintings owned by Providence collectors.

Bannister's grave in the North Burial Ground in Providence is marked by a rough granite boulder 10 feet high bearing a carving of a palette with the artist's name and a pipe. A bronze plaque also adorns the monument and is inscribed with a poem, 部分内容是这样的, “这纯洁而崇高的灵魂...他在描绘自然的同时，与上帝同行.爱德华·M. Bannister was the only African American artist of the late-19th century who developed his talents without the benefit of European exposure.