Robert Douglass Jr.

Robert Douglass Jr. (1809 – October 26, 1887)[1] was an African-American artist and leading activist from Philadelphia.

Biography

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1809, Robert Douglass Jr. was the son abolitionists and community leaders Robert Douglass Sr., from the Caribbean island of St Kitts, and Grace Bustill Douglass, daughter of Cyrus Bustill. His sister was artist and abolitionist Sarah Mapps Douglass and he had four other siblings.[2]

Douglass Jr. took a leading role in the National Colored Conventions and served as a secretary at the 1855 Convention.

He trained at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, when it was unheard of them to admit Black people, and also trained at the Royal Academy of Arts when he spent time in London. It is thought he initially studied art with his cousin, artist David Bustill Bowser. Douglass was a student of Thomas Sully.

Douglass taught at the Institite for Colored Youth. An article from 1890 recognised him as a "portrait painter of some merit". He also painted landscapes and is considered Philadelphia's first African-American photographer.[3][4] Notable works include portraits of abolitionists including William Lloyd Garrison and James Forten in 1834. His commercial business consisted of sign painting and interior decoration.[3][5] Little of his work survives.[6]

Douglass emigrated to Haiti in 1824, with the support of the Haitian Emigration Society of Philadelphia, an organization created by Richard Allen and Forten. Douglass also migrated to Jamaica in the late 1840s but later returned to Philadelphia.[6] He died there on October 26, 1887 and was buried in Eden Cemetery, Collingdale.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Robert M. Douglass, Jr" at Find A Grave.
  2. ↑ Winch, Julie, A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 116.
  3. 1 2 Philadelphia, Library Company of (1996). An African American Miscellany: Selections from a Quarter Century of Collecting, 1970–1995: An Exhibition February 5 Through September 27, 1996. The Library Company of Phil. ISBN 9780914076919.
  4. ↑ Tanner, Henry Ossawa; Marley, Anna O. (2012). Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520270749.
  5. ↑ Gonzalez, Aston (2014). "The Art of Racial Politics: The Work of Robert Douglass Jr., 1833–46". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 138 (1): 5–37. doi:10.5215/pennmaghistbio.138.1.0005. JSTOR 10.5215/pennmaghistbio.138.1.0005.
  6. 1 2 "Robert Douglass Jr". coloredconventions.org. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
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