Genre-Scene Paintings and Representations of Race
Topic 1
Genre-Scene Paintings and Representations of Race
The artist Nathaniel Jocelyn’s painting, Cinque, is an example of the shift in presentation of race in paintings during the mid-1800s. The portrait of this man is
distinctly different from the representation of African men in earlier paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries. The majority of previous portrayals of African
Americans were in genre scene paintings of white families such as John Lewis Krimmel’s Quilting Frolic. The African American men in paintings were typically shown as
quiet servants or childlike and foolish. African American women were depicted as “mammy” figures tending to the whites’ children. (Pohl 210)
Cinque is the portrait is of a man who was part of a group of people illegally captured in Africa to be enslaved, who rose up and gained their freedom through the
courts in Long Island. This group became an active part of the abolitionist movement before returning to Africa.
Jocelyn’s painting has striking similarities to religious paintings of Jesus or Moses. His wardrobe emulates many different biblical characters. Cinque presents a
dignified figure in a pure white robe with perfect draping, which is in contrast to earlier portrayals of African Americans as savages. (Pohl 210) The background of
the painting is serene similar to how to the Bible describes the “promised land.” Similarly to biblical figures in religious paintings, this man looks off to the side
thoughtfully deep in thought. The personality that shows through the painting is a significant shift in American paintings.
Cinque is an important piece of artwork for the abolitionist movement because this popular portrait humanized African Americans in a way that was not previously shown.
Cinque made way for genre-scene paintings of African Americans for the future.
Topic 2
War and Photography: Taylor and Huntington Publishers: Execution of a Colored Soldier, 1864
The distribution of a stereoscopic view of Execution of a Colored Soldier, 1864 must not be overlooked and its significance and importance in promoting the racist
ideology of the government must not be understated. Photos like these and the stories behind them, often fictional, were instrumental in creating an irrational fear of
African American’s, more specifically African American men, a fear that persists to this day. Execution of a colored soldier tells the story of a soldier executed for
desertion and attempted rape on a white woman. African American history has taught us that making mere eye contact with a white woman was an offense that was often
punishable by death. Whether or not this soldier did indeed attempt to commit rape, it is obvious in the title that he was not successful, still the photograph begs
the question, what was the attempt? What or how did he do what he was only half accused of? “While the description suggests that Johnson was fairly tried…” This
statement by Pohl is unfortunately an uninformed view of war life for many African American men. Race alone was often used as justification for acts by army superiors
during war to prevent desertion by other soldiers. If any soldier was going to be made an example of, it would be an African American man.
“Few if any, black men were ever acquitted when charged with a crime against a white women.” Here, within the same sentence, Pohl also suggests that he may have indeed
been unfairly tried. William Johnson having been found guilty by court-martial—and from the time of accusation to the time of arrest and on to the carrying out of
the sentence by death—must have been fairly quick, it may have all even been done over the course of a couple of hours. It is suggested that he was caught as a
deserter and confessed to his crime of ‘attempted rape’ and being that his ‘victim’ was the wife of a soldier serving in the rebel army, they requested to watch him
hang. A request that was granted under a flag of momentary truce. That there was a flag of truce in order to watch an African American soldier die does indeed suggest
something inhumane and as Pohl states the suggestion of Art historian Ellwood Parry, “…white men on both sides of the war saw this as an occasion for a shared racist
entertainment.”(Pohl, A nation at war: Photographs of the war) There is little doubt that for such entertainment purposes, any African American could just as easily
be offered up as ‘this evening’s entertainment.”
The photograph gives voice to an eerie silence that speaks to me a tone of defiance and innocence on the part of the executed. His head and body hanging straight and
not grossly twisted and maligned like numerous photos of lynched and executed African American townspeople. The symmetrical portrait of a dead hanging soldier shows an
image that restates over and over again, the future of the African American ‘in this country.” The soldiers or those that carried out the hanging were fairly well
adapted to hanging men and perhaps even more so colored men. Whether they, the African American men were guilty or not is clearly besides the point, his face covered
with a white handkerchief, to hide what I assume would be his bulging eyes and a hanging tongue, is good enough of a confession by Pvt. Johnson’s would be killers that
they may in fact be players in a sick and twisted game.
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