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Press Details

Walters Displays Duncanson Painting for One Year
2/1/2007

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Media Contacts:
Amy Mannarino
410-547-9000, ext. 277                                                                                              
amannarino@thewalters.org
 
Jessica Weglein
410-547-9000, ext. 394
jweglein@thewalters.org
 
A PAINTING BY ROBERT S. DUNCANSON—THE FIRST INTERNATIONALLY-RECOGNIZED AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTIST—GOES ON DISPLAY AT THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM FOR ONE YEAR
 
Baltimore—The Walters Art Museum will have on view Landscape with Classical Ruins by Robert S. Duncanson—the first African American artist to receive international recognition—during a one-year exchange with the Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio. Landscape with Classical Ruins is one of Duncanson’s most celebrated works, placing the artist among the finest of second-generation Hudson River school painters. Beginning in mid-February, the painting will be in the fourth floor lobby with the Walters’ 19th-century collection.

“Having a Duncanson on view will be a major attraction for the Baltimore community and anyone interested in the work of this major, often overlooked, African American landscape painter of the 19th century,” said artist and art historian Dr. David Driskell, a member of the Walter’s International Advisory Board. “The loan complements the Walters’ 19th-century collection, which includes works by African American artists, Edmonia Lewis, Edward M. Bannister and Henry O.Tanner.”

Duncanson, born in Seneca County, New York, was self-taught. American artist William Louis Sonntag’s influence encouraged Duncanson to focus on landscape painting in the early 1850s. The artists toured Europe together in the summer of 1853, spending much time in Florence. The landscape paintings Duncanson saw during his travels, particularly the works of J.M. Turner, inspired him to create scenes with European motifs, including Landscape with Classical Ruins. This landscape painting from 1859 is a highly romantic and imaginative view of the circular Temple of Sibyl and the rectangular Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.

The Walters in return will lend to the Springfield Museum of Art Sonntag’s View of the Potomac, a realistic mid-19th-century landscape painting. The museum directors agreed to the exchange, allowing each museum to build upon its American art collection.

Although the Walters’ 19th-century collection is primarily devoted to European, particularly French paintings, William Walters initially specialized in American art. While staying in France during the Civil War, he sold many of his early holdings and began acquiring the works of his contemporaries in Paris. His collection was especially strong in paintings by Academic artists, including Gérôme and Couture, as well as in those by Barbizon school landscape painters. His son Henry Walters, the founder of the museum, bought some key works by the Impressionists, Monet, Manet, Degas and Sisley.

The Walters Art Museum is located in Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon Cultural District at North Charles and Centre streets. Its permanent collection includes ancient art, medieval art and manuscripts, decorative objects, Asian art and Old Master and 19th-century paintings. Peabody Court is the official hotel of the Walters Art Museum. For hotel reservations, call 1-800-292-5500.