''Landscape with Rainbow'' is an oil on canvas painting by the African-American artist

Robert S. Duncanson Robert Seldon Duncanson (1821 – December 21, 1872) was a 19th-century American landscape painting, landscapist of European and African ancestry. Inspired by famous American landscape artists like Thomas Cole, Duncanson created renowned landsca ...

. The Hudson River School landscape painting was completed in 1859, while Duncanson was living in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. It has been in the collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

since 1983.

Background

Duncanson was born in Fayette, New York, in 1821, and he moved to Cincinnati by 1841, where he initially worked as a house painter. He joined the town's strong artistic community, which led to Cincinnati becoming known as the "Athens of the West". Duncanson's landscape art drew patrons, and he worked alongside fellow landscape artist William Louis Sonntag. They travelled to Europe together in 1853-54, where they studied the works of landscape masters including

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

and

J.M.W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

. Two years after ''Landscape with Rainbow'', Duncanson completed his largest work, ''The Land of the Lotus Eaters'' in 1861, inspired by the similarly-named 1832 poem of Alfred Tennyson and by

Frederic Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

's 1859 painting '' Heart of the Andes''. Duncanson became uncomfortable in Cincinnati as the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

progressed, due to the proximity of

Covington Covington may refer to: People * Covington (surname) Places United Kingdom * Covington, Cambridgeshire * Covington, South Lanarkshire United States * Covington, Georgia * Covington, Indiana * Covington, Kentucky, the largest American cit ...

in the slave-owning border state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

across the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. He left Cincinnati in 1863 to live in exile in Canada and then the UK for several years, returning to Cincinnati by 1867. He died while setting up an exhibition in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

in 1872.

Description

The painting measures . It portrays a bucolic pastoral landscape which resembles the Ohio River around Cincinnati and Covington, illuminated by the setting sun. Amid a scene dominated by the green of the landscape and the blue of the sky, a young couple are strolling with their dog along a track through fertile pastureland, past a large

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

tree, following a herd of cattle toward a house in the trees, at the end of a rainbow. The man, dressed in plain country clothes, a hat, and short trousers, is pointing out the house to his female companion, who is holding up the hem of her red dress to reveal a white petticoat. The elm may can be interpreted as a symbol of liberty or freedom, and the rainbow as a symbol of hope or of peace. The painting has been compared to ''

Niagara Niagara may refer to: Geography Niagara Falls and nearby places In both the United States and Canada *Niagara Falls, the famous waterfalls in the Niagara River *Niagara River, part of the U.S.–Canada border *Niagara Escarpment, the cliff ov ...

'' by

, which was completed in 1857 and widely exhibited to great acclaim. Duncanson's painting was also praised when it was first exhibited, with one reviewer in '' The Cincinnati Enquirer'' in January 1860 saying it was "one of the most beautiful pictures painted on this side of the mountains" (referring to the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

). ''Landscape with Rainbow'' was donated to the

in 1983, a gift of the Rhode Island attorney Leonard Granoff and his wife Paula Granoff (née Koffler, whose family founded the

American Tourister American Tourister is a brand of luggage owned by Samsonite. Brothers Sol and Irving Koffler founded American Luggage Works in Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One ...

luggage company).

Inauguration of Joe Biden

The painting was selected by Jill Biden to be presented to Joe Biden as an "inaugural painting" on the occasion of the inaugural luncheon, an event that could not take place during the Inauguration of Joe Biden due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

.Inauguration of Joe Biden
approx. half-hour into livestream by 9news, 20 January 2021 The presentation was done by Roy Blunt, Republican senator from

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. It was loaned to the United States Capitol for display for the occasion and was returned to the Smithsonian American Art Museum after the event. It was selected both because of the rainbow, and the fact that the painter was the most prolific

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

landscape painter of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. The painting is widely interpreted as hope for the nation ''after'' the period of the

, although according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the painting symbolizes "a late hope for peace before the onset of Civil War."Landscape with Rainbow
on

website File:Frederic Edwin Church - Niagara Falls - WGA04867.jpg,

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, ''

'', 1857, Corcoran Collection,

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

File:Church Heart of the Andes.jpg,

, '' The Heart of the Andes'', 1859,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

File:Robert Duncanson - Land of the Lotos Eaters.JPG,

, ''The Land of the Lotus Eaters'', 1861, Swedish Royal Collection

Notes

References

"Inauguration Highlights Rainbow Painting by African American Artist"
Smithsonian American Art Museum, January 21, 2021
Landscape with Rainbow
Dr Richard Stemp, June 9, 2020
"America’s Forgotten Landscape Painter: Robert S. Duncanson"
''Smithsonian Magazine'', October 18, 2011
Robert S. Duncanson
Smithsonian American Art Museum
''The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Volume 1''
Joan M. Marter, p.103-105

External links