A View in the Laurentian Mountains, near Québec

This landscape painting depicts a lake surrounded by tree-covered mountains. This scene is located in the Laurentian Mountains, just north of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. Robert Seldon Duncanson was a landscape painter who was inspired by the painters of the Hudson River School. These artists painted landscapes in the mountains of New York State. They created detailed paintings that celebrate America’s natural beauty. 

Duncanson was the first African American artist to become internationally famous. He was born free, but he lived most of his life in Ohio during slavery. He was part of a network of free Black artists in Cincinnati. The city was a center for art and abolitionist (anti slavery) activity. Duncanson had a successful art career in Cincinnati. Art collectors bought his work and commissioned him to paint for them. These collectors were often white abolitionists. They supported Black artists as a statement against slavery.

When the Civil War began, Duncanson tried to escape racism by going to Canada. He painted A View in the Laurentian Mountains, near Québec during his time there. He exhibited his work in Montreal and inspired a younger generation of Canadian artists to create landscape paintings.

I have no color on the brain. All I have on the brain is paint.

Robert Seldon Duncanson