Edward Mitchell Bannister was a Black Canadian American artist whose pastoral landscapes and seascapes made him a well-known painter in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Born in Saint Andrews, NB, Bannister spent the early part of his career in Boston before moving to Providence, RI, where he was a leading artist and abolitionist for thirty years.
Bannister won first prize at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia for his painting Under the Oaks, making him the first African American to win a major American art prize. Despite his success, Bannister often struggled to achieve commissions. While he is increasingly revered in the United States, he has remained largely unknown in Canada - until now.
Hidden Blackness | Noir oublie is the first publication in over thirty years about this groundbreaking Black artist and abolitionist. It features archival images and reproductions of sixteen works by Bannister, many drawn from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Essays explore Bannister's life and work, the historical context of Black history in the Maritimes and New England in the 19th century, and the recent discovery that Bannister painted over his work to obscure the Black figures.
Peintre accompli, Edward Mitchell Bannister est repute pour ses marines et ses paysages champetres. Ne a Saint Andrews, au Nouveau-Brunswick, cet artiste du XIXe siecle s'installe en Nouvelle-Angleterre des sa jeunesse, ou il s'investit dans un mouvement abolitionniste de Boston. Son tableau intitule Under the Oaks [Sous les chenes] lui vaut le premier prix de la Centennial Exposition de Philadelphie, en 1876, et fait de lui le premier Afro-Americain d'origine canadienne a remporter l'un des plus prestigieux prix artistiques des Etats-Unis. C'est aussi l'un des membres fondateurs de la Rhode Island School of Design. Malgre tout, Bannister reste largement inconnu au Canada.
Premier ouvrage publie au Canada sur cet abolitionniste et artiste noir novateur, Edward Mitchell Bannister. Noir oublie est un tournant. Il reunit des images historiques, des reproductions d'œuvres, dont beaucoup figurent dans la collection du Smithsonian American Art Museum, et des essais qui mettent en lumiere la vie et l'œuvre du peintre, le contexte historique des Noirs et des communautes noires dans le Nouveau-Brunswick du XIXe siecle. Il presente en outre des decouvertes recentes et fascinantes sur la pratique de Bannister, qui transformait volontiers en paysages des tableaux representant d'abord des personnages.
