Blue Hole, Little Miami River, Robert S. Duncanson.

About the Artist

Robert S. Duncanson was born in Fayette, New York, around 1821, the son of free African American parents. His paternal grandfather was the illegitimate son of a Virginia slave owner who had been given freedom as a young man. The Duncanson family later settled in Monroe, Michigan, and became skilled in house painting, decorating, and carpentry. It was in these trades that Duncanson began to work during the late 1830s. Desiring to become an artist, he left Michigan around 1840 for Cincinnati, which was, at that time, the economic and cultural center of the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Upon his arrival, Duncanson settled in Mount Healthy, a neighborhood northwest of the city known for its abolitionist sympathies and home to a tightly knit group of African Americans. Although he was aware of the struggles he would face as an African American working in a city so close to the South, he soon received several commissions from Cincinnati citizens.

Among those Cincinnatians who were interested in Duncanson was Nicholas Longworth (1783-1863), the city's greatest patron of the arts. Long-worth commissioned Duncanson to create a series of landscape murals for Belmont, his home (now the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati). He also financed Duncanson's trip to Europe to further Duncanson's artistic studies. In 1853 Duncanson became the first African American artist to make the Grand Tour of Europe, stopping in London, Paris, and Florence. While on this excursion, his interest in painting landscapes increased.

After returning to Cincinnati, Duncanson continued to paint landscapes in addition to portraits of local abolitionists, including Longworth. His style of landscape painting was influenced by the Hudson River School painters, which included such artists as Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and Asher B. Durand (1796-1886), whose works Duncanson would have seen during a number of Cincinnati exhibitions. The Hudson River School viewed America's untamed land as the Garden of Eden and saw the country's natural wilderness as a source of national pride. Duncanson was also influenced by a group of Cincinnati painters, including Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910) and William L. Sonntag (1822-1900]. The three artists would often venture on excursions throughout the Ohio River Valley, looking for views and scenes for their paintings.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Duncanson traveled through the northern United States and Canada to escape the turmoil of the fighting. Duncanson ventured on a second expedition to Europe in the summer of 1865, when he traveled to Scotland. While there, he received international acclaim from the British press for his works of art.

By the late 1860s Duncanson was struggling with mental illness, believing the spirit of a master artist possessed him. His delusions may have been brought on by his continuous exposure to lead-based paint, first as a housepainter and later as an artist. This exposure eventually led to the poisoning of his mind and body. Having spent his last years in Michigan, Duncanson died in a Detroit sanatorium on December 21, 1872.

A Fascinating Landscape

The geography of Cincinnati and the surrounding region, with its lush river valleys and woodlands, attracted many landscape painters to southwestern Ohio. Duncanson and other artists would often wander throughout the area searching for locales as inspiration for their work. Since the 1830s, one popular spot for artists to paint near Cincinnati was a pool of water on the Little Miami River, a tributary of the Ohio River, known as Blue Hole. This picturesque area is now in John Bryan State Park, near Yellow Springs, Ohio, about seventy miles from Cincinnati. This is the setting for Duncanson's Blue Hole, Little Miami River of 1851.

In this landscape, Duncanson has depicted the powerful and awe-inspiring effects of nature. There is an abundance of trees in the forest, and Duncanson has created their foliage using a palette of cool colors, including silvery blues and greens. These cool colors are also found in the center of the Blue Hole. Massive rocks and boulders are on either side of the water's edge, in the right middle ground and the left foreground. All along the foreground of the work, Duncanson has painted many different types of plant life that one might find in the woods, from dainty red flowers to tall green grasses. Directly in the center of the composition is an area of the forest where the trees have either been cleared or are dying. Their trunks appear stripped of their branches and leaves. In the painting, the waters of the Blue Hole are calm and serene. The mirror-like pool reflects the trees in the background as well as the clouds in the sky. At first glance this scene appears as if it is untouched by humans, until one observes the three fishermen in the central foreground.

Blue Hole, Little Miami River is a fascinating landscape painting created by the most successful African American artist of the mid-nineteenth century. As a result of paintings such as this, Duncanson achieved remarkable accomplishments in the world of art despite tremendous racial discrimination. His many successes created a path for many African American artists who followed him.

Things to Consider

* In the center of the composition of Blue Hole, Little Miami River, Duncanson has painted an area of dead or dying trees. Ask students to think of reasons why he may have included these in the painting.

* Ask students to find the location of John Bryan State Park in southwestern Ohio using a map. Discuss with students how this area of the state may have changed from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

* Ask students to imagine that they are standing in front of the Blue Hole on the Little Miami River. What things might they see, hear, or smell in that environment?

* Ask students to discuss the types of discrimination that Duncanson would have faced as an artist in America during the mid-nineteenth century.

Things to Do

Elementary School

Ask students ff they have a favorite place and what is special about it. Using these qualities and their favorite location, have students recreate that place as a landscape using paint or colored markers on paper. When they are finished, the landscapes can be mounted on poster board or matted with it. Have students write on an index card three words that describe their favorite location. Affix the card to the poster board or matt around the landscape.

Middle School

Keeping the location depicted in Duncanson's Blue Hole, Little Miami River in mind, have students research the types of flora and fauna that are native to southwestern Ohio. Ask them to think about what types of organisms they might find under the rocks, behind the trees, and below the water. Using large sheets of paper, have students draw some of these creatures on a large scale. Students will then use paint and paper to create various compositions based on areas of Blue Hole, Little Miami River, incorporating their drawings of additional native flora and fauna. Students can choose to zoom in on a particular area of the painting and recreate it using more plant and animal life.

High School

Duncanson was influenced by the Hudson River School painters, and many of his landscapes are in that style. Discuss the characteristics of the Hudson River School and in what ways Duncanson's Blue Hole, Little Miami River is similar. During the discussion, have students keep a list of these characteristics. Students will then create a landscape of an area they choose in the style of the Hudson River School painters, incorporating the characteristics they noted. Students can use any type of painting materials they would like, but they should be encouraged to paint outdoors if possible.

Resources

The Cincinnati Wing: The Story of Art in the Queen City. Cincinnati Art Museum. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2003.

Ketner, Joseph D. The Emergence of the African-American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821-1872. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1993.

Vance, Jeannette M. (editor). Artists in Ohio: 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2000.

Vitz, Robert C. The Queen and the Arts. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1989.