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Edward M. Bannister
Moonlight Marine, 1885
Painting and the sea were dual passions of Edward Mitchell Bannister, the first African American artist to receive wide-spread acclaim. After a youth spent working on ships along the Atlantic seaboard, the Canadian-born artist eventually settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where he became one of the earliest faculty members of the Rhode Island School of Design.
Best known for pastoral landscapes inspired by Jean-Francois Millet and French Barbizon school, Bannister invested his later marine subjects -- views of the Atlantic and Rhode Island coastline -- with a more experimental vision and dramatic touch. Moonlight Marine is an exceptional example of the painter's bolder mature style. |