My experience in the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) was one that I won’t soon forget. I found being surrounded by all of these beautiful pieces of art to be an amazing feeling. I have had similar experiences, but I've never been asked to actually exam the art. Due to the material I’ve learned in Basic Design, it has made me appreciate the work much more. If anything, it enhanced my experience. During my time at the DIA there was one particular piece of art that did catch my eye: Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine by Robert S. Duncanson. This piece was my favorite because of the extreme attention to detail and the lifelike feeling it gives. You can picture yourself standing on the edge of the lake, overlooking it, as a cool breeze rolls by through …show more content…
At the time Duncanson was born, African Americans weren’t the most popular figures in the country. Thankfully though, his father was Canadian and his mother was a African American meaning Duncanson was born a “free man.”Although, that did not matter much during the beginning of the young man’s life because he lived with his father in Canada. It wasn’t until Duncanson was around 20 that he moved back to America. Once he got to the US he fell in love with the landscape deciding then that he wanted to be an artist. Not long after moving in with his mother in Mount Pleasant, Ohio with his mother, he moved to Cincinnati to pursue his dream. During the 1800’s Cincinnati was a booming city, always an appropriate place to acquire a job. “Although Duncanson possed the drive and determination to be an artist, he received no technical training,” says an article on Robert’s background. Duncanson taught himself everything he knew. Because of this, he focused his skills towards painting portraits and copying …show more content…
Duncanson deserves, and we trust will receive the patronage of all lovers of the fine arts” (By Painting This Work, Duncanson Announced His Stance on Slavery and… paragraph: Background). Not long after Duncanson returned to Cincinnati because he longed for a style of painting that he was first introduced to back when he lived there. Several times his career led him over seas and across the country. This is how he painted the beautiful Loch Katrine in Scotland. This portrait, one that came only a year before his death, happens to be one of his most influential on the world. He painted because it was his passion. Duncanson enjoyed painting the landscape, and when he found beauty in the land, he painted it. One year later, he passed. Most believed it was from inhaling the poisonous paints from his years as a house painter, before he started his artistry. Although famous for his time, Robert S. Duncanson isn’t very well known in today's world. No one knows why his fame died out, but the beauty of his paintings still live on in museums. Out of all of his paintings my favorite has to be the original I seen, Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine, while browsing the DIA (seen