Banjo Player
“Banjo Player,” a delicately rendered study of a Black man in a domestic interior singing and playing the popular instrument, is among the most distinctive for Porter. Introduced to the Americas in the eighteenth century by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean—with roots in West African musical traditions—the banjo was frequently associated with Black subjects. In the late nineteenth century, however, it found favor with middle- and upper-class White women, moving into Victorian parlors. Porter’s choice of the subject reveals his market savvy, as he searched for his own artistic style and cultural identity with a range of genres.
Artwork Details
- Title: Banjo Player
- Artist: Charles Ethan Porter (1847–1923)
- Date: 1880
- Culture: American
- Medium: Graphite on paper
- Dimensions: 7 1/2 in. × 4 in. (19.1 × 10.2 cm)
Mat: 19 1/4 × 14 1/4 in. (48.9 × 36.2 cm) - Credit Line: Gift of Charlynn and Warren Goins, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.348.1
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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Charles Ethan Porter
ca. 1885
Charles Ethan Porter
1879
Charles Ethan Porter
late 1870s
Charles Ethan Porter
ca. 1878
Charles Ethan Porter
ca. 1880
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