Robert S. Duncanson
A View of Asheville, North Carolina

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • A View of Asheville, North Carolina
Date1850
PlaceAsheville, North Carolina, United States
MediumOil on academy board
Dimensionspanel: 13 × 18 13/16 in. (33.0 × 47.8 cm)
frame: 20 3/8 × 26 1/4 × 3 in. (51.8 × 66.7 × 7.6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Susan Vaughan Foundation in memory of Susan Clayton McAshan
Object number2001.85
Current Location
The Audrey Jones Beck Building
107 Kilroy Gallery
Exposé

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Department
American Art
Object Type
Description

This detailed, panoramic view of Asheville, North Carolina, is one of many paintings that led 19th-century critics and patrons, as well as the public, to call Robert Duncanson "the best landscape painter in the West."


 The first artist of African American descent to gain national and international acclaim, Duncanson emerged in the 1850s as the principal painter in and around the Cincinnati area. During the summers of 1850 through 1852, he traveled and sketched in the Ohio River Valley, visiting the western North Carolina city of Asheville, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains.


 A View of Asheville, North Carolina depicts two figures looking out over the valley, one touching the shoulder of the other and motioning toward the town. The focal points of the work, however, are the dramatic mountain range in the background and the sky above, which displays the elegant transition from the golden glow of the sun at right to blue at center. Gnarled and blasted trees bracket the image, an allusion to the passage of time and America's primordial past. Juxtaposed against the cleared valley and developing city below, they warn about man's encroachment on and destruction of nature.


 


 


ProvenanceEx-collection: private collection and by descent within the family, Detroit, Michigan, until 2000.

References to possible original owner "Ernest Israel," in John Arthur Preston, "Wester North Carolina: A History," Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co, 1914, p. 146; Andrew James Brunk, in "Robert Duncanson's View of Asheville, North Carolina, 1850," in "May We All Remember Well: A Journal of the History & Cultures of Western North Carolina," Vol. 1, p. 119.
Exhibition HistoryPossibly exhibited, Western Art Union, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1851.

"The American Landscape East to West: Themes in Painting and Photography, 1780-1910" at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, september 6, 2003-January 19, 2004.

"Houston Collects: African American Art," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Upper Brown Pavilion, July 31-October 26, 2008.

"American Made: 250 Years of American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 7 July 2012 - 2 January 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed, verso: "View of Ashville [sic] / North Ca"

There is a label on the verso that has largely been torn away leaving only the intact words: "Prince Albert / London".

Label on verso of board: "Hirschl & Adler / Galleries, Inc. / 21 East 70th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021 / Phone (212) 535-8810 Fax (212) 772-7237 / www.HirschlAndAdler.Com / Artist: ROBERT SCOTT DUNCANSON / 1821-1871 / Number: APG 8282/2 / Title: A View of Ashville [sic], North Carolina / Medium: Oil on academy board / Size: 13 x 18 3/4 / Date: 1850"
Signed, recto, lower right: "R.S. Duncanson / 1850"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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