Edward Mitchell Bannister
Today we continue our special month with the RISD Museum's collection. Enjoy!
Edward Mitchell Bannister was a Canadian–American oil painter of the American Barbizon school. Born in colonial New Brunswick, he spent his adult life in New England in the United States. There, along with his wife, Christiana Carteaux, he was a prominent member of African-American cultural and political communities, such as the Boston abolition movement.
Bannister, a founder of the Providence Art Club, became the first African American artist to win a major national award when he received a medal at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Critics described his winning landscape as a “simple composition, quiet in tone but with strong oppositions” ... characteristics that apply to this portrait of his wife.
Professionally known as Madame Carteaux, Mrs. Bannister was a Rhode Islander of African American and Narragansett descent. She was a successful hairdresser and entrepreneur, active in both artistic and abolitionist circles. In 1864, she organized an important fundraising fair to benefit the African American cavalry regiments of Massachusetts.
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