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{{Short description|Canadian–American painter (1828–1901)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Edward Mitchell Bannister
| other_names = {{hlist|Edwin{{r|Brown}}|Ned}}
| image = Edward Mitchell Bannister by Gustine L. Hurd.jpg
| caption = Bannister, {{c.|1880}}
| alt = Black-and-white, bust-length portrait photograph of Edward Bannister in a cabinet card mount. He is looking directly at the camera, has his arms crossed, and is wearing a jacket and collared shirt.
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1828|11|02}}
| birth_place = [[Saint Andrews, New Brunswick|Saint Andrews]], Colony of New Brunswick, British North&nbsp;America
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1901|01|09|1828|11|02}}
| death_place = [[Providence, Rhode Island]], US
| resting_place = [[North Burial Ground]]
| citizenship = {{hlist|Canada{{refn|group=note|While some sources mention Bannister as being Canadian, he was originally from and left New Brunswick while it was a British colony prior to Canada's confederation in 1867.}}|United States}}
| training = [[Lowell Institute]]
| style = [[American Barbizon school]]
| spouse = {{Marriage|[[Christiana Carteaux Bannister|Christiana Carteaux]]|June 10, 1857}}
| awards = {{awards|First Prize [[Centennial Exposition|Philadelphia Centennial]]|1876|Under the Oaks}}
}}

'''Edward Mitchell Bannister''' (November 2, 1828{{snd}}January 9, 1901) 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 [[History of African Americans in Boston|Boston abolition movement]]. Bannister received national recognition after he won a first prize in painting at the 1876 [[Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition]].<ref name="cbc202311"/> He was also a founding member of the [[Providence Art Club]] and the [[Rhode Island School of Design]].

Bannister's style and predominantly [[pastoral]] subject matter reflected his admiration for the French artist [[Jean-François Millet]] and the French [[Barbizon school]]. A lifelong sailor, he also looked to the Rhode Island seaside for inspiration. Bannister continually experimented, and his artwork displays his [[Idealist philosophy]] and his control of color and atmosphere. He began his professional practice as a photographer and portraitist before developing his better-known landscape style.

Later in his life, Bannister's style of landscape painting fell out of favor. With decreasing painting sales, he and Christiana Carteaux moved out of [[College Hill, Providence, Rhode Island|College Hill]] in Providence to Boston and then a smaller house on Wilson Street in Providence. Bannister was overlooked in American art historical studies and exhibitions after his death in 1901, until institutions like the [[National Museum of African Art]] returned him to national attention in the 1960s and 1970s.

==Biography==
===Early life===
Bannister was born on November 2, 1828, in [[Saint Andrews, New Brunswick|Saint Andrews]], a settlement in the [[Colony of New Brunswick]] near the [[St. Croix River (Maine–New Brunswick)|St. Croix River]]. His father, Edward Bannister, was born in Barbados.<ref name="Holland&Jennings">Holland and Jennings, Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1828–1901, 17; and Bearden and Henderson, A History of African-American Artists, 41.</ref> His mother, Hannah Bannister ({{nee|Alexander}}),{{r|Encyclopedia}}<ref>{{cite web |title=County Council Marriage Records, 1789-1887 |url=https://archives.gnb.ca/Search/CountyCouncilMarriageRecords/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&Key=22788e8b-5582-4190-ae45-2010e3602440 |website=[[Provincial Archives of New Brunswick]] |access-date=13 May 2024}}</ref> was also born in colonial New Brunswick, according to Bannister, "a stone's throw of my birthplace on the banks of the St. Croix River."<ref name="Holland&Jennings"/> Hannah's parents were probably from Barbados.<ref>"United States Census, 1880", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4SD-165 : Fri Oct 06 23:50:11 UTC 2023), Entry for E.M. Bannister and Christina Bannister, 1880.</ref><ref>"United States Census, 1900", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M97T-ZQ2 : Thu Oct 05 00:59:35 UTC 2023), Entry for Edward M Bannister and Christiana Bannister, 1900.</ref> Although both of his parents were black,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://davidsullivan.ca/oldstandrews/scrapbook/blacks/blackgeneology.html | title=An Historical Scrapbook }}</ref> Bannister was sometimes identified as "Mulatto". At the time, this designation was based on skin color as perceived by the Census taker, and did not reflect self-identity or family history.<ref>Hochschild, J. L., & Powell, B. M. (2008). Racial reorganization and the United States Census 1850–1930: Mulattoes, half-breeds, mixed parentage, Hindoos, and the Mexican race. Studies in American Political Development, 22(1), 59-96.</ref>{{r|Holland|p=23}}{{refn|group=note|Little is known about the Bannister family history. The Bannisters might have been related to the [[Black Loyalist]] communities that formed in Nova Scotia after the American Revolution{{r|Holland|p=15}}: the Bannister name appears in the ''[[Book of Negroes]]'', a 1783 list of evacuees from New York to present-day Canada.{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=71}}}} Bannister's father died in 1832, so Edward and his younger brother William were raised by their mother.{{r|Encyclopedia}} Early on, Bannister was apprenticed to a cobbler, but his drawing skill was already noted among his friends and family.{{r|Kenkebala|p=67}} Bannister credited his mother with igniting his early interest in art. She died in 1844, after which Bannister and his brother lived on the farm of the wealthy lawyer and merchant Harris Hatch.{{r|Kenkebala|p=17}} There, he practiced drawing by reproducing Hatch family portraits and copying British engravings in the family library.{{r|Webb}}

Bannister and his brother found work aboard ships as mates and cooks for several months before immigrating to [[Boston]], sometime in the late 1840s.{{r|Bearden|p=41}} In the 1850 US census, they are listed as living at the same boarding house, with the Revaleon family, and working as barbers.<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Bannister: United States Census, 1850 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDSZ-NJC |website=Family Search |access-date=January 6, 2021}}</ref> The brothers' role as barbers and status as mixed race gave them relatively high standing as middle-class professionals within Boston.{{r|Holland|p=23–24}}

Although he aspired to work as a painter, Bannister had difficulty finding an apprenticeship or academic programs that would accept him, due to racial prejudice.<ref name="cbc202311"/> Boston was an abolitionist stronghold, but it was also one of the most segregated cities in the US in 1860.{{r|Holland|p=17}} Bannister would later express his frustration with being blocked from artistic education: "Whatever may be my success as an artist is due more to inherited potential than to instruction" and "All I would do I cannot{{spaces}}... simply for the want of proper training."{{r|Kenkebala}}

[[File:The Liberator masthead, 1861 Jan 11.jpg|thumb|upright=2.0|alt=Newspaper masthead with "The Liberator" in large letters, with background scenes of a slave auction, Jesus freeing a slave under the words "I Have Come to Break the Bonds of the Oppressor", and an emancipated family living on their own farm.|Masthead of ''[[The Liberator (newspaper)|The Liberator]]'', 1861]]
Bannister received his first oil painting commission, ''The Ship Outward Bound'', in 1854 from an African American doctor, [[John V. DeGrasse]].{{r|Encyclopedia}} Jacob R. Andrews, a gilder, painter, and member of the Histrionic Club, created the commission's gilt frame.{{r|Kenkebala|p=60,67}} DeGrasse later commissioned Bannister to paint portraits of him and his wife.{{r|Bearden|p=42}} Patronage like DeGrasse's was critical to Bannister's early career, as the African American community wanted to support and highlight its contributions to [[high culture]].{{r|Kenkebala|p=23}} African Americans found [[portraiture]] an "ideal medium" for expressing their freedom and opportunity, which is probably why most of Bannister's earliest commissions are within that genre.{{r|Holland|p=95}}{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=63|q=Comparable to Cincinnati's abolitionists, who applauded and supported the career of the African American painter Duncanson, the Boston antislavery community was vigorous in its promotion and utilization of free black creativity to propagandize for the cause}}

Through abolitionist newspapers like ''[[The Anglo-African]]'' and ''[[The Liberator (newspaper)|The Liberator]]'' and the writings of [[Martin R. Delany]], Bannister likely learned about other African American artists like [[Robert S. Duncanson]], [[James Presley Ball]], [[Patrick H. Reason]], and [[David Bustill Bowser]].{{r|Holland|p=30–31}} Their work would have made Bannister's ambition seem all the more possible.{{r|Holland|p=32}} Although most cultural institutions barred Black Bostonians from entrance, Bannister would have had access to several, like the [[Boston Athenæum]] library, with collections of European art sources and exhibitions of [[Luminism (American art style)|Luminist]] [[marine painter]]s like [[Robert Salmon]] and [[Fitz Hugh Lane]].{{r|Holland|p=36}}

===Boston activist, artist, and student===
[[File:Edward Mitchell Bannister - Portrait of Christiana Carteaux Bannister - 2016.38.1 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum.jpg|thumb|alt=Oil painting portrait of Christiana Bannister. She sits on an upholstered chair and wears a brown skirt and blouse, with a red bow at her throat. She is clasping her hands and resting them on a nearby table.|upright=0.85|''Portrait of Christiana Carteaux Bannister'', Edward Mitchell Bannister, {{circa|1860}}]]
Bannister met [[Christiana Carteaux Bannister|Christiana Carteaux]], a hairdresser and businesswoman born in Rhode Island to African American and [[Narragansett people|Narragansett]] parents, in 1853 when he applied to be a barber in her salon.<ref name="cbc202311"/> Both were members of Boston's diverse abolitionist movement, and barbershops were important meeting places for African American abolitionists.{{r|Holland|p=23}} They married on June 10, 1857,{{r|Kenkebala|p=23}} and she became, in effect, his most important patron.{{r|Lancaster|p=103}} The couple boarded for two years with [[Lewis Hayden]] and [[Harriet Bell Hayden]] at [[Lewis and Harriet Hayden House|66 Southac Street]], a stop on Boston's [[Underground Railroad]] (a support network for escaped slaves).{{r|Lancaster|p=109}}

In 1855 [[William Cooper Nell]] acknowledged Bannister's rising artistic status in ''[[The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution]]'' for his ''The Ship Outward Bound''. Bannister also received encouragement to continue painting from artist [[Francis Bicknell Carpenter]].{{r|Bearden|p=42}} By 1858, Bannister was listed as an artist in Boston's city directory.{{r|Kenkebala|p=23}} Around 1862, he spent a year training in photography in New York, likely to support his painting practice. He then found work as a photographer, taking [[cyanotype|solar plates]] and [[Hand-colouring of photographs|tinting photos]]. One of Bannister's earliest commissioned portraits was of Prudence Nelson Bell in 1864,{{r|Encyclopedia}} which is around when he found studio space at the [[Studio Building (Boston, Massachusetts)|Studio Building]] in Boston. At the Studio Building, he came into contact with other prominent artists, like [[Elihu Vedder]] and [[John La Farge]].{{r|Holland|p=170}} Once Bannister was established as an artist, abolitionist [[William Wells Brown]] praised him in a 1865 book:
{{blockquote|Mr. Bannister possesses genius, which is now showing itself in his studio in Boston; for he has long since thrown aside the scissors and the comb, and transfers the face to the canvas, instead of taking the hair from the head. [...] Mr. Bannister is spare-made, slim, with an interesting cast of countenance, quick in his walk, and easy in his manners. He is a lover of poetry and the classics, and is always hunting up some new model for his gifted pencil and brush.{{r|Brown}}}}

Bannister was part of Boston's African American artistic community, which included [[Edmonia Lewis]], [[William Simpson (portrait artist)|William H. Simpson]], and [[Nelson A. Primus]].{{r|Encyclopedia}} He sang as a tenor in the [[Crispus Attucks]] Choir, which performed anti-slavery songs at public events, and acted with the Histrionic Club,{{r|Encyclopedia}} as well as serving as a delegate for the [[Colored Conventions Movement|New England Colored Citizens Conventions]] in August 1859 and 1865. His name also appears on several public petitions published in ''The Liberator''.

[[File:Church of the Fugitive Slaves in Boston.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A black-and-white engraving depicting a street scene with a 2.5-story church with mullioned windows at center.|The [[Twelfth Baptist Church]], where Bannister and Carteaux were members]]
Bannister and Carteaux were devout members of the militant abolitionist [[Twelfth Baptist Church]],{{r|Holland|p=50}} located on Southac Street near their home at the [[Lewis and Harriet Hayden House|Hayden House]]. In May 1859, Bannister served as the secretary for the church's meetings to respond to the [[Oberlin–Wellington Rescue]] of imprisoned fugitive slaves<ref>{{cite news |title=Oberlin Rescuers: Meeting of Colored Citizens of Boston |url=https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/book_viewer/commonwealth:5h742k32m#?&cv=1 |work=The Liberator |volume=29 |issue=23 |page=90 |date=June 10, 1859 |access-date=January 7, 2021 |archive-date=January 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109222441/https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/book_viewer/commonwealth:5h742k32m#?&cv=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> and, in 1863, to plan celebrations for the [[Emancipation Proclamation]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Emancipation Day |url=https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/book_viewer/commonwealth:5h742s512#?&cv=2 |work=The Liberator |volume=33 |issue=52 |page=207 |date=December 25, 1863 |access-date=January 7, 2021 |archive-date=January 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109133113/https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/book_viewer/commonwealth:5h742s512#?&cv=2 |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the [[US Civil War]], Carteaux lobbied for equal pay for African American soldiers and organized the 1864 [[United States Sanitary Commission#Sanitary Fairs|soldiers' relief fair]] for the Massachusetts [[54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment|54th infantry regiment]], 55th infantry regiment, and 5th cavalry regiment, which had gone without pay for over a year and a half.{{r|Richardson}} Bannister donated his full-length portrait of [[Robert Gould Shaw]], the commander of the 54th killed in action, to raise money for the cause.{{r|Kenkebala|p=25}} Bannister's portrait of Gould Shaw was displayed with the label "''Our'' Martyr", according to abolitionist [[Lydia Maria Child]].{{r|Kresser|p=38}} The portrait was praised in the ''New York Weekly Anglo-African'' as "a fine specimen of art" and inspired a poem by [[Martha Perry Lowe]] entitled ''The Picture of Col. Shaw in Boston''.{{r|Richardson|p=99–100}} The painting was purchased by the state of Massachusetts and installed in its state house, but its current location is unknown.{{r|Kresser|p=38}}

The Bannister portrait of Robert Gould Shaw was one of several memorials to Gould Shaw by members of Boston's African American artistic community such as Edmonia Lewis. These artworks, put to the practical purpose of raising money for Black soldiers, contradicted the ideals of [[Boston Brahmin]] abolitionists, such as the Gould Shaws. Although the Brahmins supported abolition, they saw it as an abstract good rather than a concrete cause in need of material support.{{r|Kresser|p=35|quote=[Brahmin abolitionists] did not consider African American social equality an end in itself, nor did they wish their moral efforts to be relativized through association with a particular cause. Their worldview did not recognize material definitions of social justice; consequently, it did not sanction a regime in which identifiable groups fought and negotiated for equal measures of esteem, goods, or opportunity.}} The portrait's [[paternalistic]] praise from Lowe and Child exemplified the divide between Boston's white abolitionists and the African American community.{{r|Kenkebala|p=27}} Through art like the 1884 Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, the Boston Brahmins rejected the possessive "Our Martyr" label given to him by Black artists like Bannister and Edmonia Lewis.{{r|Kresser|p=40|quote=While Lewis and Bannister acted quickly to celebrate Shaw's legacy, Boston's Brahmin class, a ponderous collective both deeply conservative and tortuously discreet, worked slowly but purposefully toward a visual interpretation of its own. The story of Augustus Saint-Gaudens's Shaw Memorial reads as a decades-long attempt to reclaim the young officer{{Em dash}}to reconfigure his effigy as a symbol of that disinterested ideality whose maintenance was so essential to the Brahmins' continued political and psychological dominance.}}

Bannister's activism also took other forms: on June 17, 1865, Bannister marshaled around two hundred members of the Twelfth Baptist Sunday School at a Grand [[Temperance movement in the United States|Temperance]] Celebration on [[Boston Common]]. They marched under a banner reading "Equal rights for all men".<ref>{{cite news |title=The Seventeenth June |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-jun-19-1865-p-5/ |work=[[The Boston Post]] |date=June 19, 1865 |volume=66 |number=143 |page=5 |language=en |access-date=January 6, 2021 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813174408/https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-jun-19-1865-p-5/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Bannister eventually studied at the [[Lowell Institute]] with the artist [[William Rimmer]], while Rimmer taught evening life drawing classes at the Institute between 1863 and 1865.{{r|Kenkebala|p=69}} Rimmer was known for his skill in [[artistic anatomy]], an area Bannister knew was one of his weaknesses.{{r|Bearden|p=42}} Because of Bannister's daytime photography business, he mostly took his drawing classes at night. Through Rimmer and the community at the Studio Building,{{r|Encyclopedia}} Bannister was inspired by the [[Barbizon School]]-influenced paintings of [[William Morris Hunt]],{{r|Bearden|p=17,66}} who had studied in Europe and held public exhibitions in Boston around the 1860s. At the Lowell Institute, Bannister formed a lifelong friendship with painter [[John Nelson Arnold]]; both later became founding members of the Providence Art Club.{{r|Bearden|p=43–44}} Bannister also formed a temporary painting partnership with Asa R. Lewis that lasted from 1868 to 1869. During that partnership of "Bannister & Lewis", Bannister began to advertise himself as both a portrait and landscape painter.{{r|Kenkebala|p=27}}

Despite his early commissions, Bannister still struggled to receive wider recognition for his work due to [[Racism in the United States#Reconstruction Era to World War II|racism in the US]]. Following [[Emancipation Proclamation|emancipation]] and the end of the US Civil War, the abolitionists began to disperse and, with them, their patronage.{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=65}} Due to increasing competition, Bannister did little to support Primus,{{r|Holland|p=163}} who had come to him seeking an apprenticeship.{{r|Encyclopedia}} An article in the ''[[New York Herald]]'' belittled both Bannister and his work: "The negro has an appreciation for art while being manifestly unable to produce it."{{r|MetCatalog}} The article reportedly spurred his desire to achieve success as an artist.{{refn|group=note|The headline and exact dating ({{circa|1867}}) of the ''New York Herald'' article is unknown, but this story is often repeated in sources. It is possible that the story is apocryphal. An early mention, during Bannister's lifetime, appears in {{harvnb|Simmons|1887}}.}} At the same time, Bannister had begun to receive more recognition within Boston art circles.{{r|Encyclopedia}}

===Providence===
[[File:Oak Trees SAAM-1983.95.155 1.tif|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=A pastoral oil painting with a small pond in the foreground, with cows grazing nearby. A man is walking down a path toward the pond, with oars carried over his shoulder. A copse of oak trees darken the center and left side of the background, while further back at right another body of water and hills are visible.|Painting completed around the time of ''Under the Oaks'' and thought to resemble its composition.{{r|Kenkebala|p=36}} ''Oak Trees'', oil on canvas, 1876]]
[[File:2021 Seril Dodge House, Providence Art Club, 11 Thomas Street.jpg|thumb|alt=A color photograph of buildings along Thomas Street in Providence, Rhode Island. The brick Seril Dodge House at right has three stories. It has a large wooden door, over which a lamp hangs. A small iron sign saying "Providence Art Club" hangs from side of the building, over the sidewalk. A small brick archway connects it to the other Seril Dodge House at left, just out of view. |Facade of the Seril Dodge House at right, where the Providence Art Club was first permanently located in 1886<ref>{{cite web |title=Seril Dodge House II |url=https://guide.ppsri.org/property/seril-dodge-house-ii |website=Guide to Providence Architecture |publisher=Providence Preservation Society |access-date=June 27, 2021 |archive-date=June 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627024615/https://guide.ppsri.org/property/seril-dodge-house-ii |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
Supported by Carteaux, Bannister became a full-time painter in 1870, shortly after they moved to [[Providence, Rhode Island]], at the end of 1869.{{r|Lancaster|p=114}} He first took a studio in the Mercantile National Bank Building then moved to the Woods Building in Providence, where he shared a floor with artists like [[Sydney Burleigh]] and became friends with Providence painter [[George William Whitaker]]. He painted more landscapes over time{{Em dash}}receiving an 1872 award at the Rhode Island Industrial Exposition for ''Summer Afternoon''{{Em dash}}and began submitting paintings to the [[Boston Art Club]].{{r|Kenkebala|p=29}}

Bannister received national commendation for his work when he won first prize for his large oil ''Under the Oaks'' at the 1876 [[Centennial Exposition|Philadelphia Centennial]].{{refn|group=note|The location of ''Under the Oaks'' is unknown. It was sold to [[John Duff (UP)|John Duff]] of Boston for $1500, after the Centennial Exposition.{{r|MetCatalog|pp=13–14}} Upon his death in 1880, he left his collection to his daughter Sibbel, wife of New York City physician William M. Bullard. She died in 1906, and in 1914 Bullard sold most of the collection.<ref>{{cite web |title=Duff, John |url=https://research.frick.org/directory/detail/410 |website=Archives Directory for the History of Collecting |publisher=The Frick Collection |access-date=June 16, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> In 1910 journalist [[Elisha Jay Edwards]] tracked the painting down to Bullard's collection.<ref>E. J. Edwards, "New News of Yesterday: The Negro Who Painted A Prize" in ''Evening Journal'' (Wilmington, DE), August 26, 1910, 4.</ref> In an 1876 issue of ''[[The Christian Recorder]]'', professor J.P. Sampson described it as "a four by six feet picture, representing in the foreground, a herd of sheep along the [stream] while further in the back-ground is a beautiful ascent, with a cluster of oaks, wide spread in their branches, like a great shed; and beneath this shelter can be seen numerous cows and sheep taking shelter from the storm."{{r|Kenkebala|p=34}}}}
Even then, the judge wanted to rescind the award after learning his identity until other exhibition artists protested;<ref name="cbc202311">{{cite news |last1=Nelson |first1=Charmaine A. |title=This Canadian won a global art prize in 1876. When the judges found out he was Black, they tried to reverse it |url=https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/black-life/edward-mitchell-bannister-black-life-1.7034183 |access-date=28 August 2024 |publisher=CBC |date=22 November 2023}}</ref> afterwards, Bannister reflected: "I was and am proud to know that the jury of award did not know anything about me, my antecedents, color or race. There was no sentimental sympathy leading to the award of the medal."{{r|Kenkebala}} Bannister had intentionally submitted his painting with only a signature attached to ensure he would be judged fairly.{{r|Kenkebala|p=36}} As his career matured, he received more commissions and accumulated many honors, several from the [[Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association|Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association]] (silver medals in 1881 and 1884).{{r|Encyclopedia}} Collectors and local notables Isaac Comstock Bates and Joseph Ely were among his patrons.{{r|Kenkebala|p=45}}

He was an original board member of the [[Rhode Island School of Design]] in 1878. In 1880 Bannister joined with other professional artists, amateurs, and art collectors to found the [[Providence Art Club]] to stimulate the appreciation of art in the community. Their first meeting was in Bannister's studio in the Woods Building at the bottom of College Hill.{{r|Bearden|p=40}} He was the second to sign the club's charter, served on its initial executive board, and taught regular Saturday art classes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miner |first1=George Leland |last2=Worthington |first2=William Chesley |last3=Atwood |first3=Louis D. |title=Providence Art Club, 1880–2005 |location=Providence, Rhode Island |publisher=[[Providence Art Club]] |pages=127, 132 |oclc=213276666 |author-link2=William Chesley Worthington}}</ref> He continued to show paintings at Boston Art Club exhibitions, as well as in Connecticut and at New York's [[National Academy of Design]], and exhibited ''A New England Hillside'' at the [[World Cotton Centennial|New Orleans Cotton Exposition]] in 1885.{{r|Kenkebala|p=45}} There, Bannister's work was segregated and ignored by the judging committees. With that experience in mind, Bannister decided not to submit any works to the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] since they would have to be pre-judged in Boston before they could even be sent to Chicago.{{r|Kenkebala|p=76}}

In the 1880s Bannister bought a small [[sloop]], the ''Fanchon'', and spent summers sketching, painting watercolors, and sailing [[Narragansett Bay]] and up to [[Bar Harbor, Maine|Bar Harbor]] in Maine. He would return with his studies and use them as the basis for winter commissions. He supplemented his sailing trips with journeys to exhibitions in New York, but a planned trip to Europe fell through due to lack of money.

In 1885, with other art club members, Bannister helped found the Anne Eliza Club (or "A&E Club"){{Em dash}}a communal men's discussion group named after the waitress at the Providence Art Club.{{r|Bearden|p=47}} Through his teaching there and at the Providence Art Club, he became a mentor to younger Providence artists, like [[Charles Walter Stetson]]. Stetson often mentioned Bannister in his personal diaries and once praised him by writing, "He is my only confidant in Art matters & I am his."{{r|Kenkebala}} Rhode Island engineer [[George Henry Corliss]] commissioned a painting from Bannister in 1886, as his reputation grew.{{r|Kenkebala|p=72}}

[[File:Edward Mitchell Bannister - People Near Boat - 1983.95.121 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|thumb|alt=An oil painting showing two men, both wearing hats and the one at left wearing a beard, pulling a small dingy out of the water and onto the grass. Two women wearing handkerchiefs on their head and carrying baskets watch from the background.|Art historians have suggested that the figure at left might be a Bannister self-portrait.{{r|Kenkebala|p=53}} ''People Near Boat'', Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1893, oil on canvas]]
Bannister and Carteaux were consistent members of the African American community in Providence. They lived for a time in the boarding house of Ransom Parker, who had participated in the [[Dorr Rebellion]],{{r|Lancaster|p=113}} and were friends with merchant George Henry, Reverend [[Mahlon Van Horne]], Brown graduate [[John Hope (educator)|John Hope]], and abolitionist [[George T. Downing]], an ally from the Bannisters' political work in Boston.{{r|Kenkebala|p=27}} Carteaux founded the Home for Aged Colored Women, which is known as the Bannister Center today. Edward exhibited his painting ''Christ Healing the Sick'' in the home in 1892 and donated his portrait of Carteaux to it as well.{{r|Lancaster|p=117}} Although he was a respected member of the Providence Art Club,{{r|Bearden|p=40}} Bannister's abolitionism likely led to conflict with its mostly white members, who exhibited art with [[Minstrel show|minstrel]] stereotypes by [[E. W. Kemble]] and W. L. Shephard in 1887 and 1893.{{r|Holland|p=214}}

Around 1890, Bannister sold the ''Fanchon'' to Judge George Newman Bliss.{{r|Kenkebala|p=75}} His largest exhibition of works was held in 1891, when he showed 33 works at the Spring Providence Art Club Exhibition.{{r|Kenkebala|p=51}} Later in the 1890s, Bannister seems to have sold fewer paintings, perhaps due to waning popularity, and exhibited less often. In 1898 Bannister closed his studio and the couple moved to Boston for a year before returning to a smaller home on Wilson Street, Providence, in 1900.{{r|Kenkebala|p=53}}

===Death===
Bannister died of a heart attack on January 9, 1901, while attending an evening prayer meeting at his church, Elmwood Avenue Free Baptist Church. He had experienced heart trouble for some time but had completed two paintings only the previous day. During the service, he offered a prayer and shortly after sat down, gasping. His last words were reportedly "Jesus, help me".{{r|Kenkebala|p=53}}

After his death the Providence Art Club held a memorial exhibition in his name that focused on his artistic achievements,{{r|Encyclopedia}} without mentioning his contribution to abolitionism.{{r|Holland|p=218,220|quote="[A]lthough Bannister crafted a distinguished public identity in his thirty years as one of Rhode Island's leading artists, his beloved Providence could accommodate Bannister's accomplishments only by practicing a kind of selective blindness{{Em dash}}honoring his artistic achievement without acknowledging his larger struggle in a racist society. This "white soul" became&comma; then&comma; an honorary white man with a special status that allowed white Providence to respect his work yet still enjoy the many blackface minstrel theaters along the main street{{spaces}}..."}} In the exhibition pamphlet, they wrote: "His gentle disposition, his urbanity of manner, and his generous appreciation of the work of others, made him a welcome guest in all artistic circles. [...] He painted with profound feeling, not for pecuniary results, but to leave upon the canvas his impression of natural scenery, and to express his delight in the wondrous beauty of land and sea and sky."<ref>{{cite book |title=Edward Mitchel Bannister: Memorial Exhibition, Providence Art Club, May 1901 |date=1901 |location=Providence, Rhode Island |publisher=Providence Art Club |url=https://archive.org/details/edwardmitchelban00bann}}</ref>

He is buried in the [[North Burial Ground]] in Providence, under a stone monument designed by artist [[Mahler B. Ryder]], RISD Illustration professor, and colleagues. In 1975, upon finding Bannister's marker damaged beyond repair, Ryder led a fundraising and design campaign to create a new monument, which stands today.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bannister - Newspapers |url=https://www.bannister.info/newspapers |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=www.bannister.info |language=en-US}}</ref> The original marker was placed by Bannister's friends upon his death. The disparity between Bannister's financial difficulties at the end of his life and the support shown by Providence's artists after his death led his friend John Nelson Arnold to say about the memorial: "In the labor incident to this work I was constantly reminded of the remark attributed to the mother of [[Robert Burns]] on being shown the splendid monument erected to the memory of her gifted son: 'He asked for bread and they gave him a stone.'"{{r|Lancaster|p=118}}{{r|Bearden|p=51}}.

Carteaux was admitted to her Home for Aged Colored Women in September 1902; she died in 1903 in a state mental institution in [[Cranston, Rhode Island|Cranston]].{{r|Lancaster|p=118}} She and Bannister are buried together.{{r|Lancaster|p=118}}

==Artistic style==
[[File:Edward Mitchell Bannister - Approaching Storm - 1983.95.62 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=A pastoral oil painting. In the foreground, a small figuring carrying an ax over its shoulder holds onto its hat in a high wind as it makes its way along a country path. In the background, several trees are bent by the wind and the sky above, while still somewhat sunny, contains dark clouds on the horizon.|''Approaching Storm'', Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1886, oil on canvas, 102.2 cm x 152.4 cm]]
The young Bannister advertised himself as a portraitist, but later became popular for his [[Landscape art|landscapes]] and [[seascape]]s.{{r|Kenkebala|p=25}} Drawing on his knowledge of poetry, classics, and English literature as an [[autodidacticism|autodidact]],{{r|Bearden|p=47}} he also painted biblical, mythological, and [[Genre#Visual arts|genre]] scenes. Much like [[George Inness]],{{r|Holland|p=178}} his work reflected the composition, mood, and influences of French Barbizon painters [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot]], [[Jean-François Millet]], and [[Charles-François Daubigny]]. Defending Millet in ''The Artist and His Critics'', Bannister saw him as the most "spiritual artist of our time" who voiced "the sad, uncomplaining life he saw about him{{Em dash}}and with which he sympathized so deeply."{{r|Kenkebala}}

Historian [[Joseph Skerrett]] has noted the influence of the [[Hudson River School]] on Bannister, while maintaining that he consistently experimented throughout his career: "Bannister managed to please a conservative New England taste in art while continuing to try new methods and styles."{{r|Skerrett}} For their mutual affinity with the Hudson River School, Bannister has been compared to his contemporary, the Ohio-based African American painter [[Robert S. Duncanson]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Appiah-Duffell |first1=Salima |title=African American Artists and the Hudson River School |url=https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2015/02/26/african-american-artists-and-the-hudson-river-school/ |website=Unbound |publisher=Smithsonian Libraries and Archives |access-date=January 12, 2021 |date=February 26, 2015 |archive-date=December 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218065154/https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2015/02/26/african-american-artists-and-the-hudson-river-school/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Unlike Hudson River School artists,{{r|Bearden|p=49}} Bannister did not create meticulous landscapes{{r|Driskell|p=126}} but paid more attention to creating "massive but revealing shapes of trees and mountains" and works more picturesque than sublime.{{r|Bearden|p=49}} Bannister also avoided the "nationalist grandeur" often found in Hudson River School paintings.{{r|Holland|p=177}}

[[File:Edward Mitchell Bannister - Boston Street Scene (Boston Common) - Walters 372766.jpg|thumb|alt=A bright painting of a Boston street scene, rendered with blurred impressionistic strokes. A woman pushes a baby carriage along a sidewalk in the foreground, and in the background several carts, store fronts, and people walking on the opposite side of the street are visible. Leafy trees stretch into the visible, blue sky from the right side of the painting.|''[[Boston Street Scene (Boston Common)]]'', (1898–99). [[The Walters Art Museum]].]]
Bannister often made pencil or pastel studies in preparation for larger oil paintings.{{r|Kenkebala}} Several of his compositions refer to classical, mathematical methods like the [[Golden Ratio]] or "Harmonic Grid", and make careful use of symmetry and asymmetry. In other paintings, his contrast of darks and lights create dynamic diagonals or circles that divide the composition.{{r|Kenkebala|p=13}} His paintings are known for their delicate use of color to depict shadow and atmosphere and their loose brushwork. His later palette exhibited lighter, more muted colors: the Boston Common scene he painted late in his life is a notable example.<ref>{{cite web |title=Boston Street Scene (Boston Common) |url=https://art.thewalters.org/detail/4695/ |publisher=[[The Walters Art Museum]] |access-date=September 13, 2020 |language=en |archive-date=September 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920045037/https://art.thewalters.org/detail/4695/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This change in style stands in contrast to his earlier stated disapproval of [[Impressionist]] painting.{{r|Kenkebala|p=53}}

Art historian Traci Lee Costa has argued that a "reductive" emphasis on Bannister's biography has taken attention away from scholarly analysis of his artwork.{{r|CostaChapter|p=89}} In the lecture ''The Artist and His Critics'' given to the Anne Eliza Club on April 15, 1886, and published afterward, Bannister spelled out his belief that making art is a highly spiritual practice{{Em dash}}the pinnacle of human achievement. In its nearly religious approach and focus on subjective representations of nature, Bannister's philosophy has been compared to both [[German Idealism]] and [[American Transcendentalism]]. In his lecture, Bannister referenced the works of American Transcendentalist [[Washington Allston]]. Bannister's friend George W. Whitaker  referred to him as "The Idealist" in a 1914 article "Reminiscences of Providence Artists".{{r|CostaChapter|p=100}} The lecture and its idealistic view are linked to Bannister's ''Approaching Storm'' (see right), which he completed in the same year. ''Approaching Storm'' features a human figure at its center, which is nonetheless rendered small by the surrounding landscape. Despite the implied drama, Bannister used a cool color palette of blues and greens, with contrasting yellows that provide warmth against the darker, almost purple sky.{{r|CostaChapter|p=97}} The contrast of melancholy elements against more cheerful pastoral themes appears in many of Bannister's paintings.{{r|Raynor}}

Although committed to freedom and equal rights for African Americans, Bannister did not often directly represent those issues in his paintings.{{r|Driskell|p=46}} The farms that Bannister painted were reminders of southern Rhode Island's history of chattel slavery, unlike French Barbizon scenes.{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=59}} In ''Hay Gatherers'', Bannister depicts African American field laborers in a rural landscape. Unlike Bannister's idyllic pastorals, ''Hay Gatherers'' represents racial oppression and labor exploitation in Rhode Island, particularly [[Washington County, Rhode Island|South County]] where most of the state's plantations were.{{r|Kenkebala|p=13}} The women workers are separated from the field of wildflowers at the painting's lower left and other field workers in the background by stands of trees, suggesting their closeness to freedom even while they are still within the grasp of plantation labor.{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=61}} Through the geometric composition of ''Hay Gatherers'', which divides the figures and the landscapes into triangular sections, Bannister combined his work on seemingly idealized landscapes with his earlier political art, visible in his humanist portraits such as ''Newspaper Boy''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wagner |first1=Anne Prentice |title=Newspaper Boy |date=January 2012 |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.saam.media/files/collections/search/artwork/researchNotes/1983.95.85.pdf |publisher=[[Smithsonian American Art Museum]] |access-date=January 4, 2021 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813174328/https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.saam.media/files/collections/search/artwork/researchNotes/1983.95.85.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Bannister's ''Fort Dumpling, Jamestown, Rhode Island'' uses a similar triangular composition, whereby people relaxing are juxtaposed against but separated from sailboats in the background, a reminder of the "maritime legacy of slavery".{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=67}}
[[File:'Hay Gatherers' by Edward Mitchell Bannister, c. 1893.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|alt=A pastoral oil painting, with warm tones. In the foreground, there are small flowers near a murky pond. A dark patch of trees divides them from the black field workers who are working in the sunlight further back. A cart full of hay stands against another set of trees.|''Hay Gatherers'', Edward Mitchell Bannister, {{circa|1893}}]]

Bannister often conveyed political meaning in his paintings through allegory and allusion. One of his first commissions, ''The Ship Outward Bound'', might have been a veiled reference to the forced return of [[Anthony Burns]] to slavery and Virginia under the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]] in 1854.{{r|Sweren}} In African American culture, an image of a ship leaving harbor was a reminder of the [[Transatlantic Slave Trade]].{{r|Kenkebala|p=20}} Bannister's 1885 drawing ''The Woodsman'' is thought to be Bannister's response to the murder of [[Amasa Sprague]], an event that spurred [[Capital punishment in Rhode Island#History of abolitions|the abolition of capital punishment in Rhode Island]] after the dubious conviction and hanging of [[John Gordon (convict)|John Gordon]].{{r|Kenkebala|p=13}} Similarly, his ''Governor Sprague's White Horse'' depicted the horse that [[William Sprague IV]] rode into the [[First Battle of Bull Run]].{{r|Kenkebala|p=15}}

Bannister has been criticized for not often directly representing African Americans, outside of his early portraiture. He and artists like [[Henry Ossawa Tanner]] were deemed inauthentic during the [[Harlem Renaissance]] for producing works that appealed to white aesthetics.{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=70}} Many of Bannister's works were commissioned landscapes and portraits that reinforced European ideas,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=Shantay |title=Black Art: Ghettoizing Art or Creating Space? |url=https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2020/01/09/black-art-ghettoizing-art-or-creating-space/ |website=Black Art in America |date=January 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127145841/https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2020/01/09/black-art-ghettoizing-art-or-creating-space/ |archive-date=November 27, 2020}}</ref> even though his art subtly dismantled racial stereotypes.{{r|Roses|p=29}} In that way, Bannister has been compared to later Bostonian poet [[William Stanley Braithwaite]], whose writing did not clearly reflect his identity.{{r|Roses|p=29}} Bannister's work reflected his desire to excel and contribute to [[racial uplift]], while still needing to depend on white patronage to reach a wider audience.{{r|Holland|p=13,47}}{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=69}} Art historian Juanita Holland wrote of Bannister's dilemma: "This was a large part of the double bind that [Boston's] black artists faced: they needed to both address and represent an African American identity, while finding a way for their white viewers to look past race to a perception of the work in more universal terms."{{r|Holland|p=104}}

==Legacy==
Bannister was the only major African American artist of the late nineteenth century who developed his talents without European exposure; he was well known in the artistic community of Providence and admired within the wider East Coast art world.{{r|Bearden|p=40}} After his death, he was largely forgotten by art history for almost a century, principally due to [[racial prejudice]].{{r|DuBoisShaw|p=70}} His art was often omitted from 20th-century art histories,{{r|Bearden|p=xii}} and his style of melancholic, serene landscapes also fell out of fashion.{{r|Bearden|p=51}} Still, he and his paintings are an indelible part of a refigured relationship between African American culture and the landscapes of [[Reconstruction-era]] America.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Armstead |first1=Myra B. Young |title=Revisiting Hotels and Other Lodgings: American Tourist Spaces through the Lens of Black Pleasure-Travelers, 1880–1950 |journal=[[The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts]] |date=2005 |volume=25 |pages=136–159 |jstor=40007722 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40007722 |issn=0888-7314 |access-date=January 5, 2021 |archive-date=January 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107042403/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40007722 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Bannister's art continued to be supported by galleries like the [[Barnett-Aden Gallery]]<ref>{{cite thesis|type=PhD|last1=Abbot|first1=Janet Gail|title=The Barnett Aden Gallery: A Home for Diversity in a Segregated City|date=2008|publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University]]|url=http://delilahwpierce.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/abbott_dissertation.pdf|pages=3–5|access-date=March 24, 2021|archive-date=July 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210705225606/https://delilahwpierce.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/abbott_dissertation.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Mann |first1=Lina |title=Diversity in White House Art: Alma Thomas |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/diversity-in-white-house-art-alma-thomas |publisher=White House Historical Association |date=August 7, 2020 |access-date=July 14, 2021 |language=en |archive-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714205519/https://www.whitehousehistory.org/diversity-in-white-house-art-alma-thomas |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[Art Institute of Chicago]].{{r|Bearden|p=338}} Following the [[civil rights movement]] in the 1960s, his work was again celebrated and widely collected. In collaboration with the Rhode Island School of Design and the Frederick Douglass Institute, the [[National Museum of African Art]] held an exhibition titled ''Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1828–1901: Providence Artist'' in 1973.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cook |first1=Karen |title=The Museum of African Art |journal=[[African Arts (journal)|African Arts]] |date=1973 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=21–63 |doi=10.2307/3334690|jstor=3334690 }}</ref> The [[Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame]] inducted Bannister in 1976,<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Mitchell Bannister |url=http://www.riheritagehalloffame.org/inductees_detail.cfm?iid=219 |website=Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame |access-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225090838/http://riheritagehalloffame.org/inductees_detail.cfm?iid=219 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Rhode Island College]] created the Bannister Gallery in 1978 with an inaugural exhibition ''Four from Providence : Bannister, Prophet, Alston, Jennings''.<ref name="gallbio">{{cite web |url=https://www.ric.edu/department-directory/bannister-gallery/about-edward-mitchell-bannister |title=Edward Mitchell Bannister |date=2021 |publisher=[[Rhode Island College]] |access-date=June 26, 2021 |archive-date=June 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627014738/https://www.ric.edu/department-directory/bannister-gallery/about-edward-mitchell-bannister |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Four from Providence: Bannister, Prophet, Alston, Jennings |date=1978 |publisher=Rhode Island College |location=Providence, Rhode Island |oclc=81435712}}</ref>

The New York-based Kenkebala Gallery held two exhibitions of Bannister's work, one in 1992 curated by Corrinne Jennings in collaboration with the [[Whitney Museum of American Art|Whitney]] and one in 2001 on the centennial of Bannister's death. From June 9 to October 8, 2018, the [[Gilbert Stuart Museum]] held an exhibition honoring Bannister and Carteaux's relationship, ''"My Greatest Successes Have Come Through Her": The Artistic Partnership of Edward and Christiana Bannister'', as part of its Rhode Island Masters exhibition series.<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Mitchell Bannister: June 9 – October 8, 2018 |work=Gilbert Stuart Birthplace & Museum &#124; North Kingstown, Rhode Island |url=http://www.gilbertstuartmuseum.org/june-9-october-8-2018-edward-mitchell-bannister/ |publisher=[[Gilbert Stuart Birthplace & Museum]] |access-date=September 13, 2020 |date=June 4, 2018 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813174415/https://www.gilbertstuartmuseum.org/june-9-october-8-2018-edward-mitchell-bannister/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[:File:Christiana Carteaux Bannister Portrait.jpeg|Bannister's portrait of Christiana Carteaux]] was the center of the exhibition.
[[File:Edward Mitchell Bannister statue by Prentiss.jpg|thumb|right|Bannister statue in Providence's [[Market Square, Providence, Rhode Island|Market Square]]]]
In September 2017, a Providence City Council committee unanimously voted to rename Magee Street (which had been named after a [[Triangular trade#Atlantic triangular slave trade|Rhode Island slave trader]]) to Bannister Street, in honor of Edward and Christiana Bannister.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mitra |first1=Mili |title=Mitra '18: In Support of Bannister Street |url=https://www.browndailyherald.com/2017/11/01/mitra-18-support-bannister-street/ |work=[[The Brown Daily Herald]] |access-date=September 13, 2020 |date=November 1, 2017 |archive-date=November 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102052612/http://www.browndailyherald.com/2017/11/01/mitra-18-support-bannister-street/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Providence Art Club unveiled a bronze bust of Bannister made by Providence artist Gage Prentiss in May 2021.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Botelho |first1=Jessica A. |title=Providence Art Club Showcases Bronze Bust of Prolific Black Co-founder |date=May 12, 2021 |url=https://turnto10.com/news/local/providence-art-club-showcases-bronze-bust-of-prolific-black-co-founder |access-date=June 10, 2021 |work=[[WJAR]] |archive-date=June 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610185948/https://turnto10.com/news/local/providence-art-club-showcases-bronze-bust-of-prolific-black-co-founder |url-status=live }}</ref> As of 2018, art historian Anne Louise Avery is compiling the first [[catalogue raisonné]] and a major biography of Bannister's work.{{r|Webb}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Artist: Bannister, Edward Mitchell (1828–1901) |url=http://ifar.org/artist_book_detail_in_progress.php?id=50352&nameid=2126 |website=Catalogues Raisonnés in Preparation |publisher=[[International Foundation for Art Research]] |access-date=September 13, 2020 |archive-date=July 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724032159/http://ifar.org/artist_book_detail_in_progress.php?id=50352&nameid=2126 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In September 2023, a bronze sculpture of Bannister by artist Gage Prentiss was unveiled in Providence's [[Market Square, Providence, Rhode Island|Market Square]].<ref name="ProJo20230908">{{cite news |last1=Russo |first1=Amy |title=City unveils statue of Black painter Edward Bannister. Here's the story behind it. |url=https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2023/09/08/sculpture-of-black-painter-edward-mitchell-bannister-unveiled-in-providence/70778537007/ |access-date=September 9, 2023 |publisher=The Providence Journal |date=September 8, 2023}}</ref> Bannister is depicted in life size, sitting on a bench.<ref name="ProJo20230908" />

==House==
In 1884 Bannister and Carteaux moved from the boarding house of Ransom Parker to 93 Benevolent Street, and lived there until 1899.{{r|Lancaster|p=116}} The two-and-a-half-story wooden house was built circa 1854 by engineer Charles E. Paine and is now known as "The Vault" or "The Bannister House".<ref name=VaultBrown>{{cite news |last=Rufa |first=Zach |title="The Vault" on Benevolent St. Remains Closed, for Now |url=http://www.browndailyherald.com/the-vault-on-benevolent-st-remains-closed-for-now-1.2347170 |date=September 29, 2010 |work=[[The Brown Daily Herald]] |access-date=September 30, 2010 |archive-date=June 22, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622015031/http://www.browndailyherald.com/the-vault-on-benevolent-st-remains-closed-for-now-1.2347170 |url-status=live }}</ref> Euchlin Reeves and [[Louise Herreshoff]] purchased the house in the late 1930s and renovated it to add a brick exterior.{{r|Sweren}} The renovation was made to create consistency with their next-door property, so both houses could hold their "little museum" of antiques. Herreshoff died in 1967 and the porcelain collection filling the Bannister House was donated to [[Washington and Lee University]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Fuchs II |first=Ron |title=The Reeves Collection Of Ceramics At Washington And Lee University |date=January 28, 2014 |url=https://www.incollect.com/articles/the-reeves-collection-of-ceramics-at-washington-and-lee-university |website=InCollect |language=en |access-date=June 26, 2021 |archive-date=January 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109204027/https://www.incollect.com/articles/the-reeves-collection-of-ceramics-at-washington-and-lee-university |url-status=live }}</ref>

The house is now listed as contributing to [[College Hill Historic District (Providence, Rhode Island)|College Hill's historical designation]]. [[Brown University]] bought the property in 1989 and used it to store refrigerators.{{r|Sweren}} Due to a lack of plans for its preservation and use, the [[Providence Preservation Society]] put the Bannister House on its 2001 list of most endangered buildings in Providence.{{r|VaultBrown}} Brown University president [[Ruth Simmons]] assured historian and former Rhode Island deputy secretary of state Ray Rickman that the house would be preserved,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Downing |first1=Neil |title=Black Contributions Kept Alive |url=https://marilynrichardson.art/2009/03/01/save-edward-bannisters-providence-home/ |access-date=January 7, 2021 |work=[[The Providence Journal]] |date=March 1, 2009 |archive-date=January 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115143720/https://marilynrichardson.art/2009/03/01/save-edward-bannisters-providence-home/ |url-status=live }}</ref> although the university debated whether to sell the house to a third party.{{r|VaultBrown}}

Because its disrepair and long disuse made the house unsuitable for residence, Brown renovated the property in 2015 and restored it to its original appearance.<ref name=House>{{cite news|url=https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/05/bannister|title=Brown to Renovate Historic Bannister House|date=May 13, 2015|work=News from Brown|publisher=[[Brown University]]|quote=The house at 93 Benevolent Street, once home to African American artist Edward Mitchell Bannister and currently owned by Brown University, will be fully renovated, returned to its original wood exterior{{spaces}}...|last1=Coelho|first1=Courtney|access-date=May 15, 2015|archive-date=March 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325014334/https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/05/bannister|url-status=live}}</ref> It was sold in 2016 as part of the Brown to Brown Home Ownership Program{{Em dash}}the program specifies that if the house is ever sold, it has to be sold back to the university.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Young |first1=Shawn |title=Brown reveals Bannister House after completed renovations |url=https://www.browndailyherald.com/2016/02/25/u-reveals-bannister-house-after-completed-renovations/ |access-date=August 31, 2021 |work=Brown Daily Herald |date=February 25, 2016}}</ref>

==Selected artworks==
<gallery widths="165" heights="165" style="line-height:140%">
File:Newspaper Boy 1983.95.85 1a.jpg|alt=An oil painting portrait of a young African American boy, who wears a newsboy cap and carries a newspaper in his right hand.|''Newspaper Boy'', 1869, oil on canvas, [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]]
File:'Governor Sprague's White Horse' by Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1869.jpg|alt=Oil painting of a horse groom, with his back to the viewer, brushing a large, white horse that is pawing the ground and turning to look at the groom.|''Governor Sprague's White Horse'', 1869, oil on canvas, Rhode Island Historical Society
File:'Fort Dumpling, Jamestown, Rhode Island' by Edward Mitchell Bannister.jpg|alt=A seaside scene of groups of people relaxing on the side of a grassy hill. A round fort rises further back, with two people standing atop it. A two-masted boat and a small spritsail sloop are sailing past the fort in the background.|''Fort Dumpling, Jamestown, Rhode Island'', {{circa|1890}}, private collection
File:'Palmer River' by Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1885.jpg|alt=An oil painting of the woody landscape along a river. Large clouds fill the sky, but the light is clear and sunny. Little orange flowers grow in the grass that slopes down from the left side of the painting toward the river.|''Palmer River'', 1885, oil on canvas, private collection<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gagosz |first1=Alexa |title=Painting by Edward Mitchell Bannister, a Black Artist and Cultural Leader in R.I., Sold for $277k |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/25/metro/painting-by-edward-mitchell-bannister-black-artist-cultural-leader-ri-sold-277k/ |access-date=26 May 2021 |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |date=25 May 2021 |archive-date=May 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526012846/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/25/metro/painting-by-edward-mitchell-bannister-black-artist-cultural-leader-ri-sold-277k/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
File:'The Woodsman' by Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1885, graphite .jpg|alt=A graphite drawing on laid paper of a man walking along a forest trail, carrying a walking stick. The trees loom over him, filling most of the page, but there is a small clearing in the trees visible up ahead.|''The Woodsman'', 1885, graphite, [[Providence Art Club]]
File:Edward Mitchell Bannister - Neutakonkanut - 1983.95.10 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|alt=A bright watercolor of a thin blue river, surrounded by greenery and rocks. A small, twisted tree sits along the river bank.|''Neutakonkanut'', 1891, watercolor, Smithsonian American Art Museum
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist|22em
|refs=
<ref name=Bearden>{{cite book |last1=Bearden |first1=Romare |author-link=Romare Bearden |last2=Henderson |first2=Harry |title=A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present |publisher=Pantheon |location=New York |date=1993 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofafrican00bear/ |isbn=978-0-394-57016-7 |oclc=799475571 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref>
<ref name=Brown>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=William Wells |author-link=William Wells Brown |title=The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements |chapter=Edwin M. Bannister |date=1863 |publisher=R.F. Wallcut |location=Boston |pages=216–217 |url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownww/brown.html#brown214 |oclc=752306068 |language=en |access-date=March 24, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225175846/https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownww/brown.html#brown214 |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=CostaChapter>{{cite book |last1=Costa |first1=Traci Lee |editor1-last=Fowler |editor1-first=Cynthia |title=Locating American Art: "Finding Art's Meaning in Museums, Colonial Period to the Present " |year=2017 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=London |isbn=978-1-351-55981-2 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1D8rDwAAQBAJ&q=Lee+Costa,+Traci+bannister&pg=PP1 |language=en |chapter=Edward Mitchell Bannister and the Aesthetics of Idealism |oclc=1004362008 |access-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714205003/https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1D8rDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Lee+Costa,+Traci+bannister&ots=rcJjVoD_wn&sig=n5_hQqXhSO152HtQiaQZEguO68c |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=Driskell>{{cite book |last=Driskell |first=David C. |author-link=David C. Driskell |title=Two Centuries of Black American art |location=Los Angeles |publisher=[[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]]; Knopf |date=1976 |url=https://archive.org/details/twocenturiesofbl00dris |isbn=978-0-394-40887-3 |oclc=2318292}}</ref>
<ref name=DuBoisShaw>{{cite book |last1=DuBois Shaw |first1=Gwendolyn |editor1-last=McCaskill |editor1-first=Barbara |editor2-last=Gebhard |editor2-first=Caroline |chapter=Landscapes of Labor: Race, Religion, and Rhode Island in the Painting of Edward Mitchell Bannister |title=Post-bellum, Pre-Harlem: African American Literature and Culture, 1877–1919 |date=2006 |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8147-3167-3 |pages=59–73 |language=en |oclc=62766073}}</ref>
<ref name=Encyclopedia>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Holland |first=Juanita Marie |title=Edward Mitchell Bannister |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History |date=2006 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K3444700104/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=89b0bbda |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |access-date=September 13, 2020 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813174411/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=BIC&u=wikipedia&id=GALE{{!}}K3444700104&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-BIC&asid=89b0bbda |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=Holland>{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last1=Holland |first1=Juanita Marie |title="Co-workers in the kingdom of culture": Edward Mitchell Bannister and the Boston community of African-American artists, 1848–1901 |date=1998 |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |oclc=46802253 }}</ref>
<ref name=Kenkebala>{{cite book |last1=Holland |first1=Juanita Marie |last2=Jennings |first2=Corrine |title=Edward Mitchell Bannister: 1828–1901 |date=1992 |publisher=Kenkeleba House |location=New York |isbn=0-87427-083-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/edwardmitchellba7928bann/page/n5/mode/2up |name-list-style=amp}}</ref>
<ref name=Kresser>{{cite journal |last1=Kresser |first1=Katie Mullis |title=Power and Glory: Brahmin Identity and the Shaw Memorial |journal=[[American Art (journal)|American Art]] |date=September 2006 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=32–57 |doi=10.1086/511094|s2cid=160840665 }}</ref>
<ref name=Lancaster>{{cite journal |last1=Lancaster |first1=Jane |title='I Would Have Made Out Very Poorly Had It Not Been for Her': The Life and Work of Christiana Bannister, Hair Doctress and Philanthropist |journal=[[Rhode Island History Journal]] |date=November 2001 |volume=59 |pages=103–122}}</ref>
<ref name=MetCatalog>{{cite book |last1=Perry |first1=Regenia A. |title=Selections of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art |date=1976 |location=New York |publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |pages=13–14 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Selections_of_Nineteenth_Century_Afro_American_Art |oclc=463123638 |access-date=September 13, 2020 |archive-date=June 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604043333/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/selections_of_nineteenth_century_afro_american_art |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=Raynor>{{cite news |last1=Raynor |first1=Vivien |author-link=Vivien Raynor |title=Moody Observations of Nature |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/13/nyregion/art-moody-observations-of-nature.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 13, 1992 |access-date=March 24, 2021 |archive-date=March 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317060739/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/13/nyregion/art-moody-observations-of-nature.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=Richardson>{{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=Marilyn |chapter=Taken From Life: Edward M. Bannister, Edmonia Lewis, and the Memorialization of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment |title=Hope & Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment |publisher=[[University of Massachusetts]]; [[Massachusetts Historical Society]] |location=Amherst |isbn=978-1-55849-722-1 |pages=94–115 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781558497221/page/94/mode/2up |date=2009}}</ref>
<ref name=Roses>{{cite book |last1=Roses |first1=Lorraine Elena |title=Black Bostonians and the Politics of Culture, 1920–1940 |date=2017 |location=Amherst |publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Press]] |isbn=978-1-61376-477-0 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/56823 |oclc=1136281222 |access-date=March 24, 2021 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813174355/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/56823 |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=Skerrett>{{cite journal |last1=Skerrett |first1=Joseph T. |title=Edward M. Bannister, Afro-American Painter (1828–1901) |journal=[[Negro History Bulletin]] |date=1978 |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=829 |jstor=44213838 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44213838 |issn=0028-2529 |author-link=Joseph Skerrett}}</ref>
<ref name=Sweren>{{cite news |last1=Sweren |first1=Evan |title=For Sale: the Bannister House |url=https://www.browndailyherald.com/2015/02/27/sweren-15-sale-bannister-house/ |work=[[The Brown Daily Herald]] |access-date=January 6, 2021 |date=February 27, 2015 |archive-date=August 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811214849/https://www.browndailyherald.com/2015/02/27/sweren-15-sale-bannister-house/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
<ref name=Webb>{{cite news |last1=Webb |first1=Steven |title=Call him an 'activist artist': Giving New Brunswick-born painter E.M. Bannister his due |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/em-bannister-activist-artist-1.5928018 |access-date=June 10, 2021 |work=[[CBC.ca]] |date=February 28, 2021 |archive-date=March 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304111340/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/em-bannister-activist-artist-1.5928018 |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |title=Edward M. Bannister: A Centennial Retrospective |location=Newport, Rhode Island |publisher=Roger King Gallery of Fine Art |date=2001 |oclc=49568395}}
*{{cite book |last1=Gonzalez |first1=Aston |title=Visualizing equality: African American champions of race, rights and visual culture |date=2020 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=978-1-4696-5996-1 |chapter=Freedom and Citizenship: Conflicting Views of Wartime}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Grant |first1=John N. |title=Edward Mitchell Bannister: The New Brunswick Years |journal =ArtsAtlantic |volume=20 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2002 |pages=17–23}}
*{{cite journal |ref=none |last1=Ott |first1=Joseph K. |title=The Barbizon School in Providence | journal = Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1828–1901, an Exhibition Sponsored by the Olney Street Baptist Church |date=August 1965 |publisher=Olney Street Baptist Church |location=Providence, Rhode Island}}
*{{cite book |last1=Simmons |first1=William J. |title=Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising |date=1887 |publisher=Rewell |location=Cleveland |pages=1127–1131 |url=https://archive.org/details/menmarkeminentp00turngoog/ |author-link=William J. Simmons (teacher)}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://americanartgallery.org/artist/home/id/136 Edward Mitchell Bannister at American Art Gallery]
*[https://www.bedfordfineartgallery.com/edward_mitchell_bannister_river.html Artwork by Edward Mitchell Bannister]
*[https://archive.today/20130209192621/http://wwar.com/masters/b/bannister-edward_mitchell.html Biographical sketch and images at World Wide Art Resources]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060830113144/http://www.artgallery.umd.edu/driskell/exhibition/sec1/bann_e_01.htm Narratives of Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection]

{{portal bar|Biography|New England}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bannister, Edward Mitchell}}
[[Category:1828 births]]
[[Category:1901 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American painters]]
[[Category:19th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American painters]]
[[Category:American landscape painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:Artists from New Brunswick]]
[[Category:Artists from Providence, Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Burials at North Burying Ground (Providence)]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Barbadian descent]]
[[Category:Painters from Rhode Island]]
[[Category:People from Saint Andrews, New Brunswick]]
[[Category:People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Emigrants from pre-Confederation New Brunswick to the United States]]
[[Category:African-American abolitionists]]
[[Category:Abolitionists from Massachusetts]]