Portrait of Aaron Douglas

A Charleston, South Carolina native, Edwin Augustus Harleston was a graduate of the prestigious Avery Normal Institute in Charleston and Atlanta University. In Atlanta he studied sociology under renowned scholar Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, and in 1905 Harleston was accepted to Harvard University to continue his liberal arts education. However, when he arrived in Boston he changed his mind, and instead, chose to attend art school at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After seven years of study under the direction of artists such as Edmund C. Tarbell, Frank Benson, and Phillip Hale, Harleston returned to Charleston as one of the city's strongest, academically-trained artists. In his "Portrait of Aaron Douglas," Harleston painted one of the most important artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas is famous for his murals and illustrations that celebrate black culture and history. In 1930, Douglas was chosen to paint a series of murals at Fisk University, and he immediately called upon Harleston to help. Harleston chose to depict Douglas clad in his artist’s coat, palette in hand, standing in front of one of the murals that he and Harleston created.