Untitled (forest scene, fallen tree in foreground and house in background)

Painted in 1873 and held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., this forest scene by Edward Mitchell Bannister—one of the first African American painters to win national recognition at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876—depicts the New England woodland scenery that formed the basis of his mature practice. Bannister, who lived in Providence, Rhode Island, developed a Barbizon-influenced landscape style attuned to the atmospheric quality of Rhode Island and New England light. The fallen tree in the foreground gives the composition an element of naturalistic accident typical of the Barbizon-influenced approach.

Bannister organizes the forest scene around the tension between the horizontal fallen tree in the foreground and the vertical standing trunks behind, with the house glimpsed in the background providing a note of human presence within the natural setting. His handling is atmospheric and tonal, building the forest interior through layered greens and browns without academic finish.