87

EDWARD MITCHELL BANNISTER

American, 1828-1901

Cows at a Watering Hole

oil on canvas
16 x 24 in., frame: 19 3/4 x 27 3/4 in.

  • Provenance: The Collection of a Rhode Island Doctor.
  • Notes: Grogan & Company thanks art historian Anne Louise Avery for her analysis of this painting. It is accompanied by her report and letter of opinion confirming the authenticity of the work.


    Providence artist Edward Bannister created a sensation when his painting won first prize at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Working in the 19th century, he faced an uphill battle to become one of the few African American painters to garner significant recognition in his day. Born in New Brunswick, Canada he moved to Boston where he began formal training in the 1860s under Dr. William Rimmer, who admitted Bannister as the only African American student in his evening drawing classes. Bannister moved with his wife to Providence, Rhode Island in 1869 where he found a thriving community of African American artists and took a studio in the Woods Building, where he would continue to work for the remainder of his career. His position among the Providence art society was cemented in 1878 when, while serving on the board of the Rhode Island Schools of Design, he founded what would later become the Providence Art Club with fellow artists George Whitaker and Charles Stetson.

    Bannister's aptitude for capturing the sky is evident in his bucolic landscape of grazing cattle. Here he delicately reflects the fair-weather clouds in the drinking pool, offering a softness to the pastoral scene and a reprieve from the weight of summer heat. Cattle landscapes were immensely popular in the mid to late nineteenth century and Bannister and his fellow Providence Barbizonians made a specialty of the genre. The confident brushstrokes, gentle impasto, and almost impressionist application of color became hallmarks of Bannister's later landscapes, while the pyramidal composition, established here by the varying heights of tree clusters, is a device repeated throughout Bannister's landscapes and maritime views. The effect is strengthened by the intense contrast between the shadows cast under the trees with the light illuminating the cattle that pulls the eye towards the distant horizon. This subtle chiaroscuro effect conveys Transcendentalist notions of grace and divinity with Nature.
  • Condition: Could do with a cleaning; scattered restoration throughout, including three small repaired tears (patches visible verso).

    Please note: All property is sold "AS IS" and any statement, whether oral or written, is given as a courtesy and shall not be deemed as a guarantee, warranty, or representation of the authenticity of authorship, physical condition, size, quality, rarity, importance, provenance, exhibitions, literature or historical relevance of the property or otherwise. The absence of a condition report does not imply the item is in perfect condition.

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May 1, 2022 11:00 AM EDT
Boston, MA, US

Grogan & Company

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