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Edward Mitchell Bannister

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  1. Untitled [Arlington Avenue] by Edward Mitchell Bannister, Image 2.

    Edward Mitchell Bannister

    Untitled [Arlington Avenue], c. 1888

    Oil on canvas

    12 x 20 in (30.48 x 50.8 cm)

  2. Christiana Bannister by K. Porter, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Image 1.

    Edward Mitchell Bannister, K. Porter

    Christiana Bannister

    Reproduction

    43.5 x 37 in (110.49 x 93.98 cm)

The E. M. Bannister gallery is named after Edward Mitchell Bannister, an accomplished 19th century landscape painter born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1828. Bannister was orphaned as a teenager and moved to Boston as an adult. There he worked as a barber and photographer while taking sculpture and drawing classes but was denied formal painting lessons because he was Black. Bannister was determined to excel as an artist despite racism, his will allegedly growing stronger after reading a racist 1867 newspaper article claiming that Black people were incapable of producing exceptional art. Naturally, Bannister went on to become an exceptional landscape painter.

Bannister and his wife moved to Providence in 1870, and Bannister soon became the first African American artist to win a national award: first prize in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Upon discovering that the prize-winning artist was Black, jurors almost revoked the award, but other artists in the competition advocated for his right to keep it. After this, Bannister’s career took off, and he went on to become a prolific painter and a preeminent member of the Providence arts community. Bannister not only succeeded as an artist in the face of widespread racism but built a legacy of appreciation for the arts in Providence, Rhode Island as a founding member of the Providence Art Club, an original board member of Rhode Island School of Design, and a respected art critic.