The Changing View of Slavery
Justus Engelhardt Kuhn and Robert S. Duncanson held respected reputations for their artistic abilities. Kuhn was the first Maryland portrait painter, of German descent from the Rhine Valley who continued his painting until his death in November 1717. Duncanson was a pre-Civil War African-American painter widely recognized as one of the great landscape artists. Given the time period and background of the two artists, one can expect their artwork to also differ in style, content, and meaning. Kuhn's Henry Darnall III as a Child and Duncanson's Uncle Tom and Little Eva appropriately reflect society's different and changing views towards slavery during each of the artists time periods. The first stark difference that stands out about the paintings certainly has to be the setting. Despite the fact that both paintings contain some form of a master and a slave, the setting certainly is different. Kuhn's painting is set on a balcony with a balustrade behind the child along with formal gardens and pavilions behind that are complete fictions. During that time period, no properties in America looked like this. Kuhn was meeting the illusory desire of Colonial gentry to seem like important extensions of European culture (Pohl 65).
Duncanson creates a vantage point in which nature's elements of sun, sky, water, land, and foliage converge in a rugged landscape. Kuhn's painting depicts the most extreme form of materialism during the time, the ownership of people. It seems that he is awaiting an order from his master. In the context of the painting, this makes sense because in the book, Uncle Tom saves Eva from drowning. Christlike prophecy in her pose," (Pohl 201). There is a background present in each of the pictures, however there seems to be a lot more attention to detail in the Kuhn painting. This argument is validated by the fact that the slave population was growing dramatically during the first half of the 18th century when the number of slaves rose from 15,000 to 100,000 (Pohl 64). Such landscape art was what Duncanson was renowned for, and also seems fitting since the master and slave are represented in a rural setting. The characters are less defined, and seem to almost be a part of the natural scene. Materialism was a part of everyday life; the search for economic and social prosperity was often why people migrated to the colonies. Eva had recognized Uncle Tom as more than just a material possession. However, in the Duncanson image, Uncle Tom seems to be asking of something from Eva, or she is almost guiding him. Even though the idea of slavery was changing during the times, the truth of the matter was that it still existed.
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