Lake Superior

1862

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 756

During the initial years of the US Civil War (1861–65), the African American painter Duncanson worked in Cincinnati and traveled frequently on sketching tours. Separated from the Confederate state of Kentucky only by the Ohio River, Duncanson would have been sensitive to the tense and hazardous conditions for Black Cincinnatians; he moved to Canada for an extended residency in 1863. This oil sketch likely depicts the Canadian Lac-Supérieur located in the Laurentian Mountains. Duncanson exhibited his paintings in Canada, where he found a receptive audience and helped launch a regional landscape movement, before returning to the United States in 1866.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Lake Superior
Artist: Robert S. Duncanson (1821–1872)
Date: 1862
Culture: American
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 8 1/2 × 13 in. (21.6 × 33 cm)
Credit Line: Partial and Promised Gift of Charlynn and Warren Goins, 2019
Object Number: 2019.601.4
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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