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Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century
From the American Revolution through the Civil War and on into the Gilded Age, American artists created dynamic images of black sitters. Many of these portraits illuminate the search for a self-possessed identity as well as cultural stereotypes and practices. Portraits of a People looks critically at images made of and by African Americans. They range from a 1773 engraving of the African-born poet Phillis Wheatley purportedly drawn by her friend, the slave Scipio Moorhead, to an 1897 portrait of the artist's mother painted by the expatriate Henry O. Tanner while visiting from Paris.
Portraits of a People features color reproductions of more than 100 important portraits in various media, drawn from museum and historical collections across the United States. The biographies of individual sitters, artists, or histories of the works are discussed in short texts. Essays consider various issues of how the self was fashioned pictorially and the development of unique identities through the formal portraiture of freeborn and previously enslaved African American artists and sitters.
Portraits of a People features color reproductions of more than 100 important portraits in various media, drawn from museum and historical collections across the United States. The biographies of individual sitters, artists, or histories of the works are discussed in short texts. Essays consider various issues of how the self was fashioned pictorially and the development of unique identities through the formal portraiture of freeborn and previously enslaved African American artists and sitters.
183 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 2, 2014
Wow! What a book! This is an amazing catalogue from an exhibition which took place in America in 2006 that travelled from the Addison Gallery of American Art in Massachusetts to Delaware, then California.
Whether interested art, portraits in general, or Black American history this is wonderful.
The exhibition looks at Black Americans in portraiture and how they were depicted. The history of those fighting for emancipation and rights unfolds, with the struggles that came with surviving as artist or black person. What is particularly interesting about the exhibition is that many of the people featured where professionals worked in business, photography, sculpting, painting and writing. Also some of the portraits were made by black and mixed-race people too, including Henry Ossawa Tanner (Painter) and Augustus Washington (Photographer). A history often hidden.
The book features well known individuals such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, Joseph Cinque (Freedom Fighter aboard the slave ship Armistad), besides the lesser well known Moses Williams (Cutter of Profiles), Edmonia Lewis (Sculptor), and Benjamin Banneker (Surveyor and Mathematician) among others.
The catalogue charts how black people were depicted in art, the origins of various portraits, such as that of Phillis Wheatley (Writer), identity in the Early Republic and makes interesting observations around identity, depiction and how artists presented themselves. The exhibition has pictures of soldiers and mixed-race slave children.
The author does put forward some interesting and challenging thoughts on some of the depictions. True intentions can only be fully known if mentioned or described by an artist or sitter, through diaries, memoirs etc, so such assumptions are sadly guesses. However, elucidation on how some of the portraits came about and the genesis of such works are unfolded here. The book is fully referenced with notes and image credits. For the pictures depicted in the exhibition, information is given about the subject as well as the creator, featuring fascinating lives, fascinating characters.
Whether interested art, portraits in general, or Black American history this is wonderful.
The exhibition looks at Black Americans in portraiture and how they were depicted. The history of those fighting for emancipation and rights unfolds, with the struggles that came with surviving as artist or black person. What is particularly interesting about the exhibition is that many of the people featured where professionals worked in business, photography, sculpting, painting and writing. Also some of the portraits were made by black and mixed-race people too, including Henry Ossawa Tanner (Painter) and Augustus Washington (Photographer). A history often hidden.
The book features well known individuals such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, Joseph Cinque (Freedom Fighter aboard the slave ship Armistad), besides the lesser well known Moses Williams (Cutter of Profiles), Edmonia Lewis (Sculptor), and Benjamin Banneker (Surveyor and Mathematician) among others.
The catalogue charts how black people were depicted in art, the origins of various portraits, such as that of Phillis Wheatley (Writer), identity in the Early Republic and makes interesting observations around identity, depiction and how artists presented themselves. The exhibition has pictures of soldiers and mixed-race slave children.
The author does put forward some interesting and challenging thoughts on some of the depictions. True intentions can only be fully known if mentioned or described by an artist or sitter, through diaries, memoirs etc, so such assumptions are sadly guesses. However, elucidation on how some of the portraits came about and the genesis of such works are unfolded here. The book is fully referenced with notes and image credits. For the pictures depicted in the exhibition, information is given about the subject as well as the creator, featuring fascinating lives, fascinating characters.
February 17, 2011
So often when I read historical novels, I wonder wat the characters looked like...how their hair was styled and their manner of dress. Even with the author's description of the character, there is always someting to be gained by a visual to enhance one's imagination. This is a wonderfully informative book. I would imagine that for someone who is writing an historial novel and wants a feel for the era, this book would be invaluable. A number of beautiful portraits are featured and the accompanying text is nicely written. Images of a number of famous African Americans are included:
-- Joseph Cinque, leader of the Amistad rebellion
-- Frederick Douglas
-- Benjamin Banneker
-- Sojourner Truth
-- Absalom Jones, a former slave who became a prominent religious leader
Additionally, there are interesting subjects such as a white man and his mulatto son, a self-portrait of a mulatto artists whose rendering of his features clerly shows his is confilicted about his racial origins and one of George Washington's cook garbed in traditional chef's hat and white linents. The portraits revealed to me some very talented artists and I am going to do a bit more research on 19th Century American painters and photographers. Some of the portraits truly magnificent.
The author has gathered an intriguing collection of artwork to illustrate 19th African Americans. This book is a keeper; a volumn that I'll enjoy referring to often as i read historical pieces.
-- Joseph Cinque, leader of the Amistad rebellion
-- Frederick Douglas
-- Benjamin Banneker
-- Sojourner Truth
-- Absalom Jones, a former slave who became a prominent religious leader
Additionally, there are interesting subjects such as a white man and his mulatto son, a self-portrait of a mulatto artists whose rendering of his features clerly shows his is confilicted about his racial origins and one of George Washington's cook garbed in traditional chef's hat and white linents. The portraits revealed to me some very talented artists and I am going to do a bit more research on 19th Century American painters and photographers. Some of the portraits truly magnificent.
The author has gathered an intriguing collection of artwork to illustrate 19th African Americans. This book is a keeper; a volumn that I'll enjoy referring to often as i read historical pieces.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews