IMAGES of BLACKS in ART

...this page conntains paintings, drawings and prints in many styles (classical, academic, expressive, abstract) by some of the greatest artists - both white and black - depicting mostly portraits of black subjects. The images range from 16th century European to present-day American. A few highlights: Durer, Head of a Negro, 1508; Rubens, Head of a Negro, c. 1620; and Steven Assael, Head II, 1998.

SELECTED LINKS:
• ..blacks & blackness in Renaissance
• African Americans in the Visual Arts
• National Center of Afro-American Artists
   • Calvin W Burnett (1921-2007)
   • Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007)
• AFRICAN ART | Hamill Gallery
• African-American History Throught Arts
  • Traditional African Art
  • Images of Africans in European Art (Rembrandt)
  • Pre-Civil War Art
  • Images of African-American Since Reconstruction
Henry O. Tanner | Lois Jones' Le Fetiches
  • The Twentieth Centruy
• Kelley Collection: Works on Paper
• African American History
• African-American Artists
   • Romare Bearden
   • Charles White
   • John Wilson
• Richard Yarde
• Daly Day Academy: Aristor - Notes & Comments, April 2005
• "What is Negro Art?"

Whether or not Ancient Egyptians were people of Black African ancestry is a debatable subject; they were certainly African and as such are included here...

Nubian workers

Aha-Mena (Pharaonic Egypt's frist monarch) mena.jpg (8523 bytes) width=165 height=178

A closeup of the aging Nefertiti width=299 height=396

Head of Aha Mena Head of Queen Tiye Bust of Nefertiti

King Tutankhamun Pharaoh Zoser

Head of southern prisoner bound about the neck,
Dynasty XVIII, cira 1560-1314 B.C. © St. Louis Art Museum.

Nubians bringing tribute to Egypt.

group of Nubians from the Memphite tomb of General Horemheb, about 1334 BC - 18th Dynasty height=387 width=580

Group of Nubians Wrestlers from the Memphite tomb
of General Horemheb, about 1334 BC - 18th Dynasty

"The accuracy of the depictions of Black racial types in Classical Greek art shows without any doubt that the artists had real, live, actually models before them." - Negroes in Classical Greece

...MORE TO COME...

BENIN BRONZE

Benin Bronze Head Makonde Mask, Tanzania Benin Ivory Mask

Bowman Algeria rock painting, © Bradshaw Foundation

Ngwaginki (Kitaturu)
Singida Region / Iramba District / Kisiriri Division

"The majority of the Tanzanian rock paintings are found in Kondoa and the contiguous Lake Eyasi basin. Those at Kondoa are the most easily accessible and perhaps the most dramatic because they are frequently painted on impressive rock faces, situated on steep rocky slopes overlooking valleys below. These paintings were also the first to be reported, as long ago as 1908. Surprisingly they were given little attention, being described and recorded only in brief publications by various scholars until Mary Leakey published her beautifully illustrated book describing the art of Kondoa-Irangi. The renewed research efforts...extend this record, and illustrate how rich this heritage really is; in five field seasons, Dr. Fidelis Masao and his colleagues recorded 140 new sites in Singida and 35 in the Lake Eyasi basin..." from: Forward by Dr. Meave Leakey to The Prehistoric Rock Art of Singida & Lake Eyasi Basin, North Central Tanzania, 2003

Rock Art of Tanzania
Singida & Eyasi Basin Rock Art

MORE COMING SOON....

press image to enlarge

THOMAS EAKINS (1844-1916)
Study for "Negro Boy Dancing": The Banjo Player (1877)

Race, Racism & American Law
AMERICAN SLAVE NARRATIVE

2 ENGRAVINGS by WILLIAM BLAKE, 1796
left: A Negro hung alive by the Ribs to a Gallows
right: Flagellation of a Female Negro Slave
The Paradox of Art about Slavery

Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784)

"Phyllis Wheatley was ... the first African-American poet. She was a slave in the home of the Wheatley family in Boston. The Wheatleys recognized her gifts, educated, and encouraged her. The illustration above shows the book of poems she published in her own name..." - Scibal Terror blog

"A GOOD LIKENESS OF SANCHO, A NEGRO MAN thirty years of age, about 5 feet high, very black complexion, good teeth, not corpulent, but well formed, and of erect position of body & a fast walker, WHO absented himself (supposed to have been inveigled away by some artful villains for their own use and benefit) upon the Evening of the 17th inst. from his Master, Winthrop Sargent, late Governor of the Mississippi Territory. He had learned the trade of a Barber, and is in every respect a most accomplished servant for a gentleman or a family; was born and educated in his Master's house; endeared to him, his mistress, and his own wife and children, as well as the numerous blacks of his Master's Plantations, by long, affectionate, and faithful services, and ere this solitary instance of malconduct, there was not a single doubt entertained that the attachments were mutual and inviolable..."

... prior to the American Revolution, slaves were owned in Old Dartmouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts, some of them held by wealthy Quakers. Liberation was urged by leaders of the sect, and before 1780, when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, no slaves were known to be held by New England Friends.

In the days of anti-slavery agitation, the people of New Bedford showed a practical sympathy for fugitive slaves. The town was noted as one of the major "stations" of the "Underground Railroad," which was not a railroad at all, but merely an undercover system, to provide refuge for fugitives. The most famous fugitive to settle in New Bedford was Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist orator and leader, who lived here from 1838 to 1841...

press image to enlarge

Paul Robeson by winold Reis, pastel, 1925

Thrash 1893-1965 Harmonica Blues 1937-38

Frederick C. Flemister, Man with Brush - self portrait - oil 1940

William E. Smith b.1913 Pay Day linoleum cut 1941

Charles White Negro:USA portfolio of lithographs 1946

Beauford pastel watercolor & charcoal 1950

Douglas Aaron, Self Portrait</i> charcoal 1964

Scattergood-Moore Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone - 1978

Jean-Michel Self-Portrait as a Heel, Part Two 1982

Anthony Ryder, Lancelot, oil on linen 1995

Whitfield Lovell virtue II charcoal on wood & silver goblet 2002

HELEN WEST HELLER
Alabama Bio-Chemist,
woodcut, 1947
collection of Scattergood-Moore

HELEN WEST HELLER
Cotton Pickers woodcut, 1935
left panel of American Soil
collection of Scattergood-Moore

IMAGES	of BLACKS in ART
INTRODUCTION "ELMA LEWIS" The National Center of Afro-American Artists 300 Walnut Avenue Roxbury MA	...this page conntains paintings, drawings and prints in many styles (classical, academic, expressive, abstract) by some of the greatest artists - both white and black - depicting mostly portraits of black subjects. The images range from 16th century European to present-day American. A few highlights: Durer, Head of a Negro, 1508; Rubens, Head of a Negro, c. 1620; and Steven Assael, Head II, 1998. SELECTED LINKS: • ..blacks & blackness in Renaissance • African Americans in the Visual Arts • National Center of Afro-American Artists • Calvin W Burnett (1921-2007) • Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007) • AFRICAN ART \| Hamill Gallery • African-American History Throught Arts • Traditional African Art • Images of Africans in European Art (Rembrandt) • Pre-Civil War Art • Images of African-American Since Reconstruction Henry O. Tanner \| Lois Jones' Le Fetiches • The Twentieth Centruy • Kelley Collection: Works on Paper • African American History • African-American Artists • Romare Bearden • Charles White • John Wilson • Richard Yarde • Daly Day Academy: Aristor - Notes & Comments, April 2005 • "What is Negro Art?"
ANCIENT ART - EGYPT Seti I King Taharqa	Whether or not Ancient Egyptians were people of Black African ancestry is a debatable subject; they were certainly African and as such are included here... Nubian workers Head of Aha Mena Head of Queen Tiye Bust of Nefertiti King Tutankhamun Pharaoh Zoser Head of southern prisoner bound about the neck, Dynasty XVIII, cira 1560-1314 B.C. © St. Louis Art Museum. Nubians bringing tribute to Egypt. Group of Nubians Wrestlers from the Memphite tomb of General Horemheb, about 1334 BC - 18th Dynasty • The Black African presence in Ancient Egypt by Cheikh Anta Diop • King Narmer, regarded as first Pharaoh with negro features • Pharaohs Zoser and Cheops • Ancient Africa's Black Kingdoms • Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye • Images and History of Queen Nefertiti • Global African Presence - articles by Runoko Rashidi • History of Egypt, Volume 5, by Masperso • Wrestling in Ancient Nubia • Aha-Mena, Pharaonic Egypt's first monarch • Queen Tiye - Kamite Dynasty XVIII • King Taharqa's Photo Gallery - 25th Dynasty • Chronology of Ancient Eygpt and Nubia • Race and History • African American - Golden Legacy • Black Africans in Ancient Egyptian Art
GREEK & ROMAN MEMNON pupil of Herodes Atticus	"The accuracy of the depictions of Black racial types in Classical Greek art shows without any doubt that the artists had real, live, actually models before them." - Negroes in Classical Greece ...MORE TO COME... • Negroes in Classical Greece
TRADITIONAL ARTS TRIBAL MASKS SCULPTURE ROCK ART	BENIN BRONZE Benin Bronze Head Makonde Mask, Tanzania Benin Ivory Mask Bowman Algeria rock painting, © Bradshaw Foundation Ngwaginki (Kitaturu) Singida Region / Iramba District / Kisiriri Division "The majority of the Tanzanian rock paintings are found in Kondoa and the contiguous Lake Eyasi basin. Those at Kondoa are the most easily accessible and perhaps the most dramatic because they are frequently painted on impressive rock faces, situated on steep rocky slopes overlooking valleys below. These paintings were also the first to be reported, as long ago as 1908. Surprisingly they were given little attention, being described and recorded only in brief publications by various scholars until Mary Leakey published her beautifully illustrated book describing the art of Kondoa-Irangi. The renewed research efforts...extend this record, and illustrate how rich this heritage really is; in five field seasons, Dr. Fidelis Masao and his colleagues recorded 140 new sites in Singida and 35 in the Lake Eyasi basin..." from: Forward by Dr. Meave Leakey to The Prehistoric Rock Art of Singida & Lake Eyasi Basin, North Central Tanzania, 2003 Rock Art of Tanzania Singida & Eyasi Basin Rock Art MORE COMING SOON.... • African Art Museum: Tribal Masks • Africa Rock Art • Bradshaw Foundation - Rock Art/Cave Painting African Rock Art: Carvings & Paintings Rock Art Paintings of Tanzania • Flickr: rockart
press images to enlarge	WORLD ART 1st - 21st Century
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)	Four Studies of a Negro Head A Negro
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)	Three Negro Boys chalk Head of a Negro pastel
Jean Louis Théodore Géricault 1791-1824	Head of a Negro A Negro 1823-24 Young Negro Woman Study of a Man 1819 Portrait of a Negro c.1822
PRE 20th CENTURY PORTRAITS	press image to enlarge j • Durer, Head of a Negro 1508 chalk (essay) • Frans Hal: Mulatto (so called) 1628-30 • Rembrandt The White Negress 1631 etching • Govaert Flinck The Young Archer ca. 1639-40 • Velazquez: Juan de Pareja 1650 (essay) • Rembrandt Two Negros 1661 (enlarge) • Portrait of Unknown African, ca. 177cs, oil painting • John Singleton Copley Portrait of Negro 1777 • Marie Victoire Lemoine: Portrait of Zamor 1785 (enlarge) • Anne Louis Girodet Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley 1797 • Marie Guilhelmine Benoist Port. of a Negress 1799-1800 • English Portrait of a Slave in Chains ca, 1800 • Lovis Corinth: Negro ("Un Othello") 1884 oil • Thomas Eakins, Port. of Henry O Tanner c.1897 oil Jan Brueghel The Elder Study of Moor Heads [source] Anthony Van Dyck Four Negro Heads PORTRIATS & FIGURES NOT ILLUSTRATED ABOVE: • Frederic Bazille Negro Girl with Peonies • 16th century Nigeria, Edo, Court of Benin Head of an Oba, c. 1550 • Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Port. of a Negress 1800 • Jan van Biljert, Head of a Moor, etching 1635 • Durer Portrait of Moorish Woman Katharina c.1630 • Paul Cezanne, The Negro Scipio 1867 • Thomas Eakins, The Banjo Player 1877 • Thomas Eakiins, Negro Boy Dancing 1878, watercolor • Gericault at www.bridgeman.co.uk • Alexandre Georges Henri Regnault Head of a Moor, c. 1870 oil on canvas • Saint-Gaudens, Shaw Memorial (detail) 1884-1901 • Henry Ossawa Tanner, the Banjo Lesson 1893 • Velazquez, Las Meninas aka Ladies in Waiting 10'5"x9'5" THOMAS EAKINS (1844-1916) Study for "Negro Boy Dancing": The Banjo Player (1877)
SLAVERY	Race, Racism & American Law AMERICAN SLAVE NARRATIVE 2 ENGRAVINGS by WILLIAM BLAKE, 1796 left: A Negro hung alive by the Ribs to a Gallows right: Flagellation of a Female Negro Slave The Paradox of Art about Slavery Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784) "Phyllis Wheatley was ... the first African-American poet. She was a slave in the home of the Wheatley family in Boston. The Wheatleys recognized her gifts, educated, and encouraged her. The illustration above shows the book of poems she published in her own name..." - Scibal Terror blog A GOOD LIKENESS OF SANCHO, A NEGRO MAN The Project Gutenbery eBook "A GOOD LIKENESS OF SANCHO, A NEGRO MAN thirty years of age, about 5 feet high, very black complexion, good teeth, not corpulent, but well formed, and of erect position of body & a fast walker, WHO absented himself (supposed to have been inveigled away by some artful villains for their own use and benefit) upon the Evening of the 17th inst. from his Master, Winthrop Sargent, late Governor of the Mississippi Territory. He had learned the trade of a Barber, and is in every respect a most accomplished servant for a gentleman or a family; was born and educated in his Master's house; endeared to him, his mistress, and his own wife and children, as well as the numerous blacks of his Master's Plantations, by long, affectionate, and faithful services, and ere this solitary instance of malconduct, there was not a single doubt entertained that the attachments were mutual and inviolable..." WINTHROP SARGENT. "Columbian Centinel," Sept. 30, 1807 LINKS: • Captain Canot, or Twenty Years of an African Slaver image: title page \| illustration • Slavery is a Women \| The Lilith Gallery of Toronto • Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture Uncle Tom's Cabin on Film (requires QuickTimme 7)
FREDERICK DOUGLASS	... prior to the American Revolution, slaves were owned in Old Dartmouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts, some of them held by wealthy Quakers. Liberation was urged by leaders of the sect, and before 1780, when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, no slaves were known to be held by New England Friends. In the days of anti-slavery agitation, the people of New Bedford showed a practical sympathy for fugitive slaves. The town was noted as one of the major "stations" of the "Underground Railroad," which was not a railroad at all, but merely an undercover system, to provide refuge for fugitives. The most famous fugitive to settle in New Bedford was Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist orator and leader, who lived here from 1838 to 1841... Swain School of Design
BLACKFACE and MINSTRELS CARICATURE SMILING NEGRO SMILING BLACK MAN	Blackface Minstrelsy 1830-1852 LINKS: • African American Art • Gallery of Images (minstrel index of images) • Minstrelsy: Sounds & Imagery • Knockin mp4 \| Tucker mp4
20th CENTURY PORTRAITS *THE SMILE* oil painting by Gary Frier	press image to enlarge • Harold Gilman Study of Negro c.1905 • Winold Reiss, Paul Robeson pastel 1925 • William H Johnson Self Portrait 1929 • Dox Thrash Harnonica Blues 1937-38 • Dox Trash, Bronze Boy print c.1937-38 The African-American Mosaic • Frederick C. Flemister, Man with Brush (self portrait oil 1940 • Thomas Hart Benton, Aaron, 1941 • William E. Smiith Pay Day 1941 linoleum cut • Charles White Negro: USA 1946 litho portfolio • Beauford Delaney Self Portrait 1950 • Elizabeth Catlett Sharecropper 1957-70 woodcut • Calvin W Burnett Self Portrait ca. 1960 • Douglas Aaron, Self Portrait charcoal 1964 • Jacob Lawrence Self Portrait 1965 (NPG) • Sigmund Abeles, Black Woman 1969 drypoint • Scattergood-Moore Please Don't Talk... 1978 • Adrian Piper Self-Portrait 1981 • Jean-Michel Basquiat Self Portrait 1982 • Scattergood-Moore Queen Anne 1985 charcoal • Barrington Watson, Self Portrait oil 1987 • Sigmund Abeles Tylrone with Drawing of Renee 1996 pastel • Shamek-Imin R. Weddle ca. 1998 USA • Steven Assael, Head II 1998 • Anthony Ryder, Lancelot oil on linen, 1995 • John Wilson Martin Luther King, Jr 2002 • Timothy Stotz, Rachel (detail) oil 2007 • Whitfield Lovell Virtue II 2002 Gary Frier: Kaapse Klopse, mixed media on board, nd *ANDREW WYETH: CLOSE FRIENDS* \| WYETH'S BLACK MODELS** Andrew Wyeth: Study for 'A Crow Flew By', nd • And Bells on Her Toes, 1997 • Alexander Chandler, 1995 • The Drifter, 1964 • Adam, 1963 • That Gentleman, 1960 • Granddaughter, 1956
SOCIAL COMMENTARY BLACK JESUS	Thomas Hart Benton Negro Soldier 1942 Camptown Ladies (detail) by Kara Walker Kara Walker at Whitney Museum of American Art painting by Nina Buxenbaum
NUDES:	• left: Theodore Chasseriau Nude Negro 1838 • right: John Singer Sargent Thomas E McKeller c. 1917-20
MISCELLANIOUS	PORTRIATS & FIGURES NOT ILLUSTRATED ABOVE: • Steven Assael, Nichol 1997 pencil • Basquiat, Self Portrait • Thomas Hart Benton, Romance 1932 (study) • Thomas Hart Benton, Slaves 1927 • Harold Gilman, The Negro Gardener 1905 • William H. Johnson (1901-1970) Self Portrait ca. 1923-26 Self Portrait with Bandana 1935-38 • The Art of William H. Johnson (bio) Hank Kearsley: art studio, Newton Center MA • Winold Reiss, Portrait of Langston Hughes pastel ca.1925 • Timothy Stotz, Lancelot Bourne oil 1998 • Meredith Bergmann, Phillis Wheatley: detail of Boston Women's Memorial, 2003
SCULPTURE	ROBERT BOULD SHAW MEMORIAL by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848 - 1907) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC JOHN WILSON left: Eternal Presence, 1987, bronze maquette RALPH HELMICK right: MLK Jr." maquette, 1999
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	HELEN WEST HELLER Alabama Bio-Chemist, woodcut, 1947 collection of Scattergood-Moore HELEN WEST HELLER Cotton Pickers woodcut, 1935 left panel of American Soil collection of Scattergood-Moore
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