After the Bath

A quiet stillness marks this scene of a farm at sunset, as shadows fall across the grass and the day draws to a close. Chores done, a rural couple enjoys the stillness and the squawking of geese moving across the lawn. Edwin Mitchell Bannister was deeply influenced by the atmospheric effects of the French Barbizon painters, whose works were popular in Boston when he was an art student there at the middle of the nineteenth century.

African American artist Bannister achieved success for his landscapes, winning a bronze medal for a painting shown at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. After training in Boston, he spent his career in Rhode Island, where he became acclaimed for his images of the Ocean State’s coastlines and rural areas.