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Gift of Harmon and Harriet Kelley.

After the Bath

Gift of Harmon and Harriet Kelley.
Gift of Harmon and Harriet Kelley.
Contact us at copyright@samuseum.org for rights and reproduction of this image. Photography by Peggy Tenison.

After the Bath

Artist: (American, born Canada, 1828 - 1901)
Place made:United States
General region:North and Central America
Date: ca. 1891
Dimensions:
36 x 49 in. (91.4 x 124.5 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Harmon and Harriet Kelley
Object number: 94.61
Signed: Signed and dated lower right: E.M. Bannister/91
Inscribed: Signed and dated lower right: E.M. Bannister/91
Label Text
You can almost feel the warmth of the sun in this pastoral scene by American artist Edward Mitchell Bannister. The title, After the Bath, usually reserved for female nudes, here humorously refers to geese drying off near a pond. Influenced by the French Barbizon school, Bannister made rustic landscapes like this one, that revel in quiet moments.

A Canadian American artist whose father was from Barbados, Bannister became even more determined as a painter after he read a racist newspaper article in 1867, which stated that Black people could not make art. In 1876, Bannister became the first Black artist to receive a national award, which the judges attempted but failed to rescind upon discovering his race. Bannister became a leading painter in Providence, Rhode Island, where he lived, continuing to paint meditative scenes of the natural world.

(Yinshi Lerman-Tan, 2021)


On view


The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.