Past Exhibition: Robert S. Duncanson and his Courageous Southern Travels

Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872), was a Black Hudson River School artist who painted the American South before the Civil War. Widely famous during his lifetime, this artist’s forgotten courageous journey through the antebellum South has never been exhibited or researched until now. Duncanson brilliantly created captivating landscape paintings that come alive to the viewer, by focusing on the minute details of nature and of the stories he wished to communicate. Robert Duncanson’s American scenes of the South often included Underground Railroad imagery and the mountain ridge lines that could be followed as pathways to the North. Many of his paintings were highly landmark driven with details that make these vistas identifiable today. Is it possible that Duncanson painted these historical landmarks to lead the enslaved people of America to freedom? Art historian Michael Meyer believes it is possible.

Robert S. Duncanson’s sublime art tells the story of black history that is essential for all to learn. His concern for the plight of his brethren compelled him to treat these stories and landscapes with detail and care. Unfortunately due to the lack of real and honest research Duncanson has been greatly misrepresented. It’s astonishing that no American museum or institution, black or white, has NEVER undertaken an exhibition of this scale or touched on the topic so near to the artist’s heart. One can speculate as to their reasons why, or simply write it off as to their lack of qualifications in discerning the artist’s unique code of subject as compared to his contemporaries. Now it is clear, Robert Duncanson is to the South, what Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran are to the West, and what Frederic E Church is to the Catskills and New England, except for one major difference, while Duncanson’s paler peers looked west at the setting sun, with luminicsm often being a symbol of manifest destiny, for this artist, it was a pivot of 90 degrees north, freedom or bust.

There is a lot to learn from “Robert Duncanson and his Remarkable Southern Travels,” at Meyer Fine Art in Fredericksburg, Virginia, we have endeavored to share the over 20 years of true research we have on this artist. This exhibition showed over 40 paintings and we proudly created a catalog on his southern travels. This was an impeccable exhibition and we are so thankful for the publicity it received!