AMONG THE ARTISTS The Artist.

According to page 331 of the 1918-1919 edition of Work’s Negro Year Book, “Bannister, E. M., of Providence, Rhode Island, was one of the first Negroes in America to achieve distinction as a painter. He was the founder of the Providence Art Club, which is to-day the leading art organization in Providence. “Its membership, mostly, if not wholly white, includes many of the leading citizens of the city and state.” One of Mr. Bannister’s pictures “Under the Oaks” was awarded a medal at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. The picture became the property of the Duffe Estate of New York City.”

Henry O. Tanner, born in Pittsburgh, Pa., and now living in Paris, France, is the greatest artist in the Negro race and among the best of all races. His early life along artistic lines was one of hard struggles, constant ambitions, unshaken determinations and final success, until today his works are known and treasured all over the world. His most successful paintings are those describing different incidents that are taught in the Bible. Among his many pictures that have won fame and fortunes for him are; “The Banjo Lesson”, “Christ Walking on the Sea”, “The Holy Family”, “Hills Near Jerusalem”, “Christ at the Home of Lazarus”, “Mary and Elizabeth” and “The Hiding of Moses.” Mr. Tanner is the son of Bishop B. T. Tanner.

“Mr. William Scott is considered by critics to be one of the foremost artists in America. He excells alike in the difficulties of portrait painting and in the cleverness and subtlety of his cartoon work. In a time when artists are becoming more and more a necessity of modern life, his ability bids fair to lift him even more to the top of his profession. Mr. Scott led his class at the Chicago Art Institute.” This quotation is extracted from the November-December 1920 issue of Fenton Johnson’s Favorite Magazine.

The following extract about Mr. Scott is from Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 331: “He took the Magnus Brand Prize for two successive years. He studied in Paris at the Julian Academy and under Henry O. Tanner. Three of his paintings were accepted by the Salon des Beaux Arts at Toquet. The Argentine Republic purchased one of his pictures, La Pauvre Voisine. He has completed Mural paintings for public buildings in Evanston, Illinois; Chicago and Indianapolis. He is interesting himself in Negro subjects and is doing in painting what Dunbar has done in verse.”

The late Wm. A. Harper of Chicago, Ill., although a young man at his death had already won recognition for his paintings and himself. He had spent two year of study in Paris and has been successful in exhibiting his paintings at the Chicago Art Institute. Chief among his works are “The Last Gleam”, “The Hillside”, and “The Gray Day.”

A few of the many present day Colored artists who have also become recognized and prominent in this art are; Lulu Adams, Los Angles, Cal.; Ernest Atkinson, Baltimore, Md.; C. L. Boydkin, Boston, Mass.; C. L. Dawson, Chicago, Ill.; Arthur Diggs, J. B. Davidson, Washington, D.C.; W. M. Farrow, Frances Grant, Marcellus Hawkins, Chicago, Ill.; J. Hardwick, L. Harris, Louise Latimer, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Effie Lee, Wilberforce, Ohio; L. M. Rogers, Harvey Roseland, Washington, D.C.; A. A. Smith, New York; Frank Waltz, N. Y.; Hilda Wilkerson, Arthur Winslow, Chicago, Ill.; and Sidney Woodward, New York, (some of above names are extracts from Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, pg. 331.)

Miss Laura Wheeler’s painting “Heirlooms” won first place in New York City among 500 art exhibits at the Water Color Club. Aside from being an instructor in the art department of the Cheyney School, Cheyney, Pa., and illustrator for such national magazines as The Crisis, she is recognized as one of the foremost Colored women artists in America.

At the John Wanamaker Art Exhibition held in Philadelphia, Pa., not many months ago, K. G. Ganaway, a Colored butler in Chicago, Ill., entered his photographic picture “The Spirit of Transportation”, which won first prize out of 900 pictures exhibited by many of the country’s most experienced and expert white photographers residing in different parts of the United States. While other people in going to railroad stations saw nothing interesting there but hurrying crowds of people, truck loads of baggage and black sooty trains and sheds, Mr. Ganaway’s artistic eye and timely focused camera soared above those common place things as he saw and portrayed the wonderful beauty of the dust laden tapering and yellow beams of lights and shadows caused by the sun’s golden rays streaming through the dingy skylights of the Terminal’s high and arched ceilings.

Architects

In nearly every American city of importance where the Negro population is large there are Colored architects of recognized standing and ability. The following are just a few of those names that have come under the hurried notice of the writer: W. T. Bailey, Memphis, Tenn.; A. I. Cassell, Baltimore, Md.; W. C. Cook, Gary, Ind.; W. H. Hammond, Pittsburgh, Pa.; I. T. Hatton, Washington, D.C.; Benjamin and William Hazel, Boston, Mass.; Harry S. James, Seattle, Washington, now in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; H. N. Johnson, Norfolk, Va.; the late J. T. N. Minot, New York City; J. C. Norman, Charleston, W. Va.; J. W. Robinson and Henry Robinson, Hampton, Va.; Chas. T. Russell, A. M. Segoins, Baltimore, Md., V. W. Tandy, New York City, W. T. White, Kansas City, Mo. and P. R. Williams, Los Angeles, Cal.