Over the past several years, interest in the work of Black artists has grown exponentially. The art market has responded in kind, with some auction houses now dedicating entire sales to works by African American artists. For those of us who work in the field, this shift is both exciting and deeply significant. But to truly appreciate the art emerging today, we must look back—tracing the complex and often painful history of Black representation in American art.
This is the first post in a multi-part series which will offer a broad overview of how African Americans have been portrayed in the visual arts—from early depictions by white artists to the rise of Black self-representation, cultural movements like the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, and today’s vibrant contemporary scene. Along the way, we’ll look at key artists, examine cultural turning points, and reflect on how art can both shape and respond to history.
The New York painter, William Sidney Mount (1807-1868) is one of the first artists to be credited with establishing a distinctly American painting style through his genre scenes depicting of rural life on Long Island. Early scholars also praised him for portraying Black figures with what was called a “place of dignity.” However, a closer examination reveals a narrative that is far more complex and, at times, deeply troubling.
In works like Farmer’s Nooning (1836), a painting that appears benign at first glance—a group of farm workers resting in the fields—Mount incorporates subtle visual cues that would have been apparent to educated viewers of his time. The painting’s central Black figure, a man named Abner Mills, is shown as the focal point, wearing white and lit prominently. Yet symbols like a tam-o’-shanter hat (a political reference to anti-abolition sentiment) and a boy “tickling” his ear (a metaphor for gullibility) suggest a deeper, satirical critique of abolitionism. Mount’s political leanings—he was aligned with the Jacksonian party—further contextualize this work.
His portrayals must also be seen alongside the rise of minstrel shows in the 19th century—performances that caricatured Black people as lazy, foolish, or hypersexual. These shows, often performed by white actors in blackface, reinforced harmful stereotypes that persisted well into the 20th century. Mount’s portraits of Black musicians, such as The Bone Player and The Banjo Player, may appear sympathetic on the surface- there is no question they are beautifully rendered portraits of known individuals. However, they were created for a European audience drawn to the perceived exoticism of American Black culture—and thus can’t be separated from the racialized “entertainment” trends of the time.
Art, Politics, and Representation
In early American art, Black people were rarely depicted at all—and when they were, it was usually as servants, enslaved individuals, or comic figures. A notable example is Edward Savage’s The Washington Family (1789), where an enslaved man—Christopher Sheels—stands in the background, shrouded in shadow. Other works, such as the engraving titled, The Horrid Massacre in Virginia, depict Black people as violent threats, particularly in the aftermath of Nat Turner’s rebellion. These images both reflected and reinforced white anxieties about emancipation.
As the Civil War approached and the abolitionist movement gained steam, artists began to engage with themes of race and freedom in more nuanced ways. Eastman Johnson’s The Lord is My Shepherd (1863), for instance, depicts a Black man reading a Bible, possibly wearing a Union jacket—an image meant to reassure white viewers of the moral capacity of newly freed people. But even these seemingly sympathetic portrayals were often shaped by the expectations and fears of white audiences.
To be continued in Part II: Art in the Aftermath of Emancipation: Reconstruction, Resistance, and Representation
*This content was created for the ISA 2025 Assets Conference.