Edward Mitchell Bannister

1828-1901

Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828–1901) was a Black Canadian-American painter who spent his working life in Boston and Providence. Born in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, he moved to Boston in the late 1840s, working first as a barber before establishing himself as a portrait and photography artist within the city's abolitionist community. His marriage to hairdresser and entrepreneur Christiana Carteaux gave him vital patronage and a place in Black Boston's political and cultural life; his portrait of Robert Gould Shaw was used to raise funds for African American soldiers during the Civil War. Settling in Providence around 1870, Bannister turned increasingly to landscape and marine painting, drawing on Jean-François Millet and the Barbizon School to render Rhode Island's coast and countryside in soft, atmospheric light. He won first prize in painting at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and helped found the Providence Art Club and the Rhode Island School of Design. Neglected after his death, his reputation was revived decades later, and his work is now held in major American museum collections.