"Still-Life," Robert Duncanson, 1849.

Duncanson (c. 1821-72) was mostly known as a landscape artist of the Hudson River School (and the later, lesser known Ohio Valley School), and still lifes by him are few and far between.

He was the first Black American artist to achieve international renown, and was prominent in abolitionist circles, both in activism and to sell his work.

Self-taught, he first made a living painting portraits, but as his skill and technique grew, and he attracted patrons, he began to focus more on landscapes. He fled to Canada and the UK when the Civil War broke out, and returned to his beloved Cincinnati, Ohio (then an arts hub, called "the Athens of the West") in 1866. He developed dementia (or schizophrenia), possibly as a result of lead poisoning, and passed away in Detroit at the age of 51.

The Taft Museum in Cincinnati now has an artist-in-residence program for contemporary Black American artists in Duncanson's honor.

From the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

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