Visual art
Robert S. Duncanson
1821–1872 · landscape and portrait painter
The first internationally known African American painter; he grew up in Monroe, Michigan, painted portraits in Detroit in the 1840s and died here in 1872.
- Born
Fayette, New York- Died
Detroit, Michigan- Birth name
- Robert Seldon Duncanson
- Also known as
- Robert Seldon Duncanson
- Detroit years
- 1828–1840s, 1872
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Duncanson's family moved to Monroe, Michigan, south of Detroit, in 1828, and he trained there as a house painter and decorator. In the 1840s he worked as an itinerant portrait painter between Cincinnati, Monroe and Detroit, spending much of 1845–1849 in Detroit. The Detroit Daily Advertiser praised his skill and color in 1846, and he won portrait commissions from prominent families such as the Berthelets. He then built his career in Cincinnati as a landscape painter in the Hudson River School tradition, with abolitionist patrons in the United States, Canada and Britain. In his last years he suffered from mental illness. In 1872 he collapsed while setting up an exhibition in Detroit and died on December 21 in a Detroit sanatorium. He was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Monroe. The Detroit Institute of Arts holds several of his works, including Uncle Tom and Little Eva (1853).
Highlights
- Considered the first African American artist with an international reputation
- Painted portraits in Detroit in the 1840s, praised by the Detroit Daily Advertiser
- DIA owns Uncle Tom and Little Eva (1853) and other works
- Exhibited at Detroit's Western Art Gallery in 1871
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place
Detroit Institute of Arts (Friday Night Live!)
Holds several Duncanson paintings, including Uncle Tom and Little Eva (1853), Drunkard's Plight and At the Foot of the Cross.
Buried here · 1872
Woodland Cemetery (Monroe)
His burial place in Monroe, the town where he grew up.