IMAGES OF SLAVERY: George Fuller's Depictions of the Antebellum South SarahBums

Fig. 1. George Fuller. NEGROSWAITING AT THE DEPOT. Late December, 1857. Pencil on paper. This drawing and all others in this article, which are being illustratedhere for thefirst time, are from a sketchbookmeasuring 512 by 103/4"inches, in a private collection.

T HREETIMES IN THE I850s, George Fuller (1822- Fuller was no stranger to the life of the itinerant 1884)visited the Deep South, in each case remaining portrait artist. During the 1840s this native of Deerfield, there for several months. His primary motive was to Massachusetts, was almost constantly on the move, seek fresh opportunities for portrait commissions in painting faces in various parts of New England and areas where the competition might reasonably be sup- western State. It was simply necessary posed less fierce than in New York, Fuller's adopted business, for the most part routine and often dull. The city during the decade.' Southern states, however, opened up surprising new avenues of experience to the Yankee painter. He re- SARAH BURNS, Assistant Professorin the School of Fine corded those in memoranda, in letters to Arts at Indiana University, has written several articles experiences on nineteenth-centurypainting, including "A Study of family and friends in the North, and in a fascinating the Life and Poetic Vision of George Fuller (1822- sketchbook containing his impressions of slave life. 1884)" published in the Autumn, 1981, issue of the Fuller used this sketchbook in Montgomery, Ala- JOURNAL. bama, during the winter of 1857-1858. The cardboard-

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 35 x ; bound pad, measuring 5V2 by 103/4 inches, contains *?? '; . seventy-eightdrawings, sixty-three in pencil and the w.: rest in and ink or ink wash. About *: . ..;...... :: . ."*'S:. '...... :.f k ??? ?::::;n;:- pen thirtydepict ~~~~:?..*'I'I'E ???:? '????:::: .. * : :: b .:;*:?*;I: slaves and plantationscenes; the rest are landscapes, .:~~~~~~~~!ur :: studies of plant life, and the like. A few of the slave scenes are littlemore than thumbnail scribbles, crudely I:ii:: ?:::: ??' set down. The selectionpresented here representsthe 11. ??:.: best of Fuller's black genre drawings,in both the ar- sense. The later s tistic and the documentary drawings I.- ?I: provided motifs for several of Fuller's black genre paintings(see Figs. 24, 25 and 27-31). The materialin the Alabamasketchbook, which remainsin the Fuller family, has never untilnow been published. The purposes of this article are to examine the Fullerletters and sketches, whichtogether comprise a unique illustrateddiary createdduring a most critical periodof Americanhistory, and to discussmore briefly the subsequent paintings and their significance.In orderto amplifyand corroborate Fuller's own observa- tions, other personalaccounts of the Southernexperi- ence and slave conditions will be cited where ap- propriate. Fuller's first two trips producedno sketches of importance,but his diaryjottings and lettersare worth citing, since they incorporateprose vignettes of the painter's daily life in strange, new places. In late November, 1849,Fuller boarded a steamerbound from New York to Charleston,South Carolina.He carried with him a letter of recommendationto a Charlesto- nian, Elisius Mowry, from his friend, the landscape Fig. 2. Fuller. OUR PAGEHARRY. February 22, 1858. Pencil on painter, SanfordGifford (1823-1880).2 It is not clear paper. whether Fuller initiallyplanned to establishhimself in Charlestonor to move on shortly.The prospectsfor businessin Charlestonmay not havebeen encouraging. Whatever the situation, Fuller did proceed almost immediatelyto Augusta,Georgia, where he remained 1000 ... amongst those baptizedwas one so white I from early December, 1849, until August 1, 1850. could not detect the dark shade." Later that month these months Fuller was active both in During quite Fuller called at a plantationin the countrysidenear makingand in teachingart. Augustaand "Saw Negroesat workin the fieldsfor the His terse entries an outlineof his journal provide firsttime, men and women, ploughingand planting."4 routines. On one "Mrs. typical daily Februaryday However, a slave auctiondid producea hot burst Dodge sat. Improvedcrayon of child. Madean outline of indignantsentiment. In a letterhome Fullerrelated for her frombrother's In the on picture. eveningcalled his reactionsto the sale of a lovely youngquadroon: Miss Wilde." A fortnightlater, Fuller "Paintedon of child. Gave lesson in Inthe Who is thisgirl with eyes largeand black? The bloodof the picture drawing. evening white and dark races is at enmity in her veins - the called on Mrs. Gould."3 former predominated.About 3/4white says one dealer. With one notable exception, Fuller's entries on Three fourthsblessed, a fractionaccursed. She is under aspects of slave life were equally terse and neutral. thy feet, white man. ... Is she not your sister?... She Twice he witnessed mass baptisms.In mid-February impressesme withsadness! The pensiveexpression of her he recorded: "Clear weather. Walked on the river finelyformed mouth and her drooping eyes seemedto ask for .... Now she looks now her fall bank. Saw on the shore. sympathy up, eyes Negroes baptizing opposite before the rudegaze of those who are but calculatingher Their songs came agreeablyacross the water."Again, charms or serviceablequalities.... Oh, is beauty so in April, "Attended a baptism of Negroes. About cheap!s

36 Burs/Fuller Thirty years later Fuller, looking back to this distant memory, painted The Quadroon (see Fig. 28), which will be considered later in this article. Six years passed before Fuller again set out for the South. He had been moderately successful in New York. Indeed, in February, 1856, he wrote that he had as much business painting portraits as he could handle and was raising his price from fifty to seventy-five dollars.6 Now, however, he was in debt to his friend William Ames, a New York merchant from whom Fuller had borrowed money in order to send his tuber- cular brother Elijah out West, where the dry climate might improve his condition. Fuller believed that if he set up a portrait studio in Montgomery, Alabama, he could, with hard work, clear one hundred dollars a week and would soon pay off his debt to Ames.7 His choice of Alabama was almost certainly influencedby a painter friend, Edwin Billings (1823-1893), whom he had known since the 1840s, when Billings lived near Deerfield. Billings, also a portrait painter, customarily wintered in Alabama, and he must have assured Fuller that the demand for portraits in the provinces was sufficiently high to justify the venture. Fuller and Billingsbegan theirjourneyon December 17, 1856. They took a train from New York to Balti- more, a steamboat to Petersburg, Virginia, and then continued the trip overland, again by train. By Christ- mas they were settled in Montgomery. Fuller lingered there only until January 15, when he left Billings and headed downriver to to Mobile, thinking perhaps reap Fig. 3. Fuller. ELLIS. January,1858. Pencil on paper. greater rewards in that more cosmopolitan, cultured, and hedonistic city on the Gulf of Mexico. Three days before his departure, Fuller had at- tended a slave auction which, while it did not arouse the emotion fueled by the 1850 sale in Georgia, did impress him as a most melancholy sight: A similar had also amazed another I saw a scene soldat auction! with sight Northerner, today,Negroes together the architect Frederick Law Olmsted horses and other cattle. It was full of suggestionswhich I landscape (1822- will not pursuenow. The poorchildren, men, women, and 1903), who had voyaged down the Alabama River on littleones lookedsad. Whata fateis theirs!No one to raise the steamboat Fashion in 1852. "There was something a voice for themand God aboveus all.8 truly Western," he wrote, "in the direct, reckless way in which the boat was loaded," the cotton bales On the steamboat that carried him down the Ala- coming down the almost "perpendicularbank" with a "fearful bama River, Fuller found diversion in observing the 10 velocity." which took place duringnumerous stops cotton-loading In Mobile, Fuller at a house where at riverbank towns: stayed boarding there were fifty lodgers and "nearly half as many negro It was interestingto see the negroesload cotton - It was servants." Homesick for simple, familiar pleasures, rolleddown the steep highbluffs of the riverin the most Fuller wrote to his brother, "I wish I was with you [in recklessmanner, but, the fellows were so accustomedto the] North with a bitter wind in my teeth, enjoying a the that to save most of it from thing they managed going sleigh ride and a cheerful fire and pleasant friends in the into the river- At some placesthere were slidesor race Mobile's ways of threehundred feet downwhich it wouldcome like evening." ambience seemed dangerously lightningand reboundten or twelve feet from concus- glamorous: "Much money is made here, and the people sion - finallywe hadon boardnear two thousandbales.9 seem veryfast."11 He did not, however, allow himself The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 37 Fig. 4. Fuller. MARIAH. December, 1857- January,1858. Pencil and inkwash on paper.

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to be distracted by regattas, horseraces, cockfights, or this time I have not lost one hour but worked con- 2 balls. In April he told his brother Elijah, "I feel as if I stantly (Sundays and all I am sorry to say)." Fuller had sold myself to Mammon ... [but] I sent Ames left Mobile to journey north in the middle ofJune, 1857. $300." At the end of his time in Mobile he informed his He spent the summer, according to his custom, in brother, "I have been here just five months . . . during Deerfield.

38 Burns/Fuller Fig. 5. Fuller. GRACE.Late December,1857. Pencil on paper. Detail of sketchbookpage.

Fig. 6. Fuller. SLEEPINGCHILD. Early February, 1858. Pencil on paper.

Encouragedby his toilsomebut profitablewinter December, 1857. Rather than move on to Mobile, as he in Mobile, Fuller decided to return with Billings to had originally intended, Fuller now elected to stay in Alabama for the winter of 1857-1858. After a short Montgomery with Billings. Unfortunately, the season stop in , the two painters left for the proved so much less lucrative than the previous year's South on the steamboat Florida in the first week of that Fuller saw no point in remaining as long as he had

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 39 Fig. 7. Fuller. BRIGGINSPLANTATION. Early February, 1858. Pencil on paper.

at first planned. He left the South in mid-April,1858, myself in the same class of subjects.These worksare the and afterbrief visits to Alexandriaand Philadelphia, he expressionsof whatwe call lowly or everydaylife suchas once more settleddown for the summerwith his ChildrenShelling Peas or GirlsWashing ... butso finein family so and naturalthat is attracted in Deerfield."I have not hada color, quiet everybody by very profitablewinter," them. How muchwe pass by everyday whichonly needs he wrote to his half brother Augustus. "The 'hard the interestand the handto expressto provepure gold.15 times' have made people in Alabamaafraid to expend thus Frere's and no doubt much money in pictures."13 All was not lost, however: Inspired by example, mindfulof the of American that winter Fullerhad made plansfor a series of genre flourishingpopularity genre Fuller arrivalin paintingsfocusing on the lives of the Southernblacks. painting, upon Montgomeryactively to the slaves Thus far in his career,the greaterpart of Fuller's began pursuepicturesque subjects among and their From the he was delib- work had consistedof portraiture.He hadattempted a surroundings. first, for future he couple of narrativescenes in the late 1840sand had erately storingup impressions paintings; made his intentionsclear in lettershome. and dabbledin landscapepainting and sketching.His sud- "Billings I," he wrote to his at den and zealous interestin genrearose from an increas- brother,"[are] working leisurely but the most of our when not ing appreciationof humble,everyday sentiment in art. present making time, we are sketches In mid-November, 1857, shortly before leavingNew painting portraits making securing for future reference." On his home York for his second trip to Alabama,Fuller saw the something way from Alabama in Fuller "I have exhibitionof the BelmontCollection of Frenchpaint- April, 1858, wrote, made for several whichI intend ings at the NationalAcademy of Design. Here for the subjects pictures paint- first time he encounteredthe work of EdouardFrere ing this summer if I can find some quiet place in the where I can work undisturbed."16 These (1819-1886), who specializedin peasantgenre of con- country pro- in siderablepopular appeal.'4 Fuller wrote to his familya jected paintings, grounded scrupulouslyreported "Southern would a "new ... in glowingletter on his conversionto the commonplace: facts," represent way Art" for Fuler (see Figs. 21 and22).'7 In the small picturesby FrereI find so muchof my own Althoughbusiness soon became slack, the begin- feelingexpressed that I feel as if I couldhardly wait to put ningof 1858in Montgomerywas promising.Fuller and 40 Burns/Fuller Fig. 8. Fuller. COTTON PRESS AND GIN. February2, 1858. Pencil on paper.

Fig. 9. Fuller. COTTONGIN AND PRESS.February 20, 1858.Pencil on paper.

Billings found a brisk business painting portraits of called "negro character and his relations." In 1858 members of the legislature, then in session at the Montgomery (having wrested the distinction from Alabama State Capitol. However, observing the blacks Tuscaloosa) had been the capital of Alabama for little proved far more interesting than documenting the fea- more than a decade. Centrally located in the richest tures of white congressmen. Fuller wrote to his fiancee, cotton-growing region of the state, Montgomery was Agnes Higginson: the core of a land-owning, slave-holding economy. In We find here a fine fieldfor studyingnegro character and Montgomery County there were two black slaves for his relations.. . andwe havealready secured a numberof every free white, though in the town itself the whites sketches. There is with them always such a free motion had a slight edge. In addition to plantation owners, the is and unstudiedattitude and their costume so appropriate white population included wealthy merchants and as to makethem real prizes in an artisticway.18 lawyers who maintainedelegant urbanestablishments.19 Montgomery and its environs afforded abundant While he sought out his rich field of subjects in and opportunities for the artist eager to study what Fuller around Montgomery, Fuller quite sensibly was circum-

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 41 Fig. 10. Fuller. LAUNDRY YARD WITH TWO LAUNDRESSES. January 28, 1858. Pencil and ink wash on paper.

Fig. Il. Fuller. LAUNDRYYARD WITH LAUNDRESS AND CHILD. January 27, /858. Pencil and ink wash on paper.

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spect concerning his own views on slavery, which he already observed a number of sights that would be privately deemed "a very bad cause." He was surprised important in his pictorial record of the South: to find 's Atlantic in the local book- Monthly Negroes were busy gatheringthe last pickingof cotton, stores. Since this new journal had already taken a and a solitaryGin and presswith a few baleslaying about vigorous stand against slavery, Fuller assumed that "it madealmost the only varietyfor the eye. I saw manyfine cannot be generally read - People here are very sensi- subjectsfor study in the Negroes,men and women sitting tive on home His own sketches made no on horses or engaged in work about the depots as we questions."20 Women with a mule moral in art the not passed along. ploughing single (this comment; picturesque, politics, seemsto be women'swork) and men chopping and burning.22 was his concern. Fuller's studies of slave life fall into several The drawing Negros waiting at the Depot (Fig. 1) may categories: simple portraits, scenes of slaves at work, have been made during or soon after Fuller's railroad and slaves at home. Unfortunately, in his letters Fuller journey. This compactly huddled group, consisting of said very little about how he approached his models or women and children, plus one black man, perhaps gained entrance to their quarters. If he engaged these represents slaves hired out by their owners and here slaves in conversation, he made no note of what was awaiting transportation to a distant plantation or town. said. Some of the letters describe sights that Fuller did Such shunting of human property from one city or even not sketch. Therefore, the letters and sketches are state to the next was a common practice in the South, more often in counterpoint than synchronization.2' particularlyin the winter, between the end ofthe harvest Approaching Montgomery by train, Fuller had and the start of the next growing season.23

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 43 *::::... :...:. .

Fig. 13. Fuller. SLAVE WOMEN DIGGING IN 4 MONTGOMERY. February21, 1858. Pencil on paper.

Once in Montgomery, Billings and Fuller settled suits that were issued to adult male slaves; both wear into a comfortable routine. "Billings and myself," the so-called Negro brogans and have slouchy hats, Fuller reported, "have taken a room away from the probably of felt. Hotel where we take our meals, where we keep bache- The two named women in Fuller's little gallery are lors hall and have a cheerful fireside of our own. A good Mariah (Fig. 4) and Grace (Fig. 5). The image of Grace looking yellow boy takes care of it for us." 24 is particularly striking, showing a beautiful, strong- This "good looking yellow boy" is presumably boned face framed by a bonnet, the "Virginia poke" the subject of the drawing inscribed with the chivalric which, along with the ubiquitous scarf, was the usual title, Our Page Harry (Fig. 2). Harry was probably a headdress of the female slave. That Grace wears a slave either owned by or hired out to the landlordof the small, circular ornament on her bosom suggests that building where Fuller and Billings rented their room. this portrait may have been made during the Christmas This drawing is one of the most appealing of Fuller's holidays, when the blacks, allowed time off for celebrat- portraits, showing the very young, handsome, and ing, put on their finest clothes. It is also possible that solemn boy standing next to the hearth that he tended Grace was a house slave. That rank would entitle her to for the two painters. Fuller obviously took great pains finer costume than that of the field hands and other with this drawing, using a finely sharpened pencil to outdoor laborers.25 The last of the portraits is the record every detail of Harry's costume, along with the Sleeping Child (Fig. 6), a straightforward,unassuming umbrella and kindling heaped in the angle between the sketch of a black baby. fireplace and the wall, and the small shovel propped Being farm-raised himself, Fuller was naturally ready for use near the fire. curious about aspects of Southern agriculture. The There are four other studies of individuals. The drawing Briggins Plantation (Fig. 7) gives a distant, other male portrait depicts an older black, of whom general view of a planter's house shaded by a grove of nothing is known but his name, Ellis (Fig. 3). Like mature trees and dominating a cluster of outbuildings Harry, Ellis is represented as an attractive, dignified, to the rear. Depending on the size of the farmingopera- and serious figure. Both boy and man wear the coarse tion, the latter buildings may be either slave quartersor

44 Burns/Fuller storage and work sheds. On the larger plantations the (Figs. 10, 11, and 12). Figure 12 is perhaps the most slaves usually lived in a separate "village" under the successful and informative drawing of this group. Deli- overseer's eye.26 cately and precisely drawn, it represents in detail the Of particularinterest to Fuller was the agricultural equipment of the washing operation: the sheltered well technology that underpinnedthe cotton-growingeconomy with its crankshaft, the wooden tubs and colossal of the South. Figures 8 and 9 are very careful render- cauldrons, and the ranks of linens hung up to dry. In the ings of the standard cotton-processing equipment: the foreground lies a pair of clumsy brogans, temporarily gin, housed in the barn-like structures, and the cotton put off, perhaps, by one of the washerwomen. press or screw press. When the latter was in operation, On both documentaryand historicalcounts, Fuller's horse or mule power would turn the massive screw, group of female diggers (Fig. 13) is a remarkabledraw- which squeezed the ginned cotton into uniform bales, ing. Here several, brawny, black women, with a mule- ready for shipping.Both drawingswere made in February, drawn wagon, are busy with shovels and a pickaxe. 1858. At this season the cotton harvest was over; con- They seem to be engaged in some sort of road work or sequently, the gins and screws were idle. Figure 8 also grounds maintenance. In the backgroundover the trees represents that surprising sight Fuller had earlier seen rises the dome of the State Capitol. With reference to from the train: a female slave driving a mule-drawn the women, it is interesting to read Frederick Law plow. As Fuller had correctly supposed, this was a task Olmsted's account of a similar scene in South Carolina frequently assigned to women field hands. six years earlier: On the there was an large plantations usually open- We stopped ... on this plantation,near where some thirty air laundry, where the family washing was done by men and women were at work, repairingthe road.The female domestic, or house, slaves. The laundry yard women were in the majority,and were engaged at exactly was part of a complex including the kitchen and the the same labor as the men. .... They were dressed in coarse . . . for convenienceof dairy. It was convenient to the spring or well and was graygowns which, greater workingin the mud, were reefed with a cord drawn with a of and tubs.27Fuller, up equipped great array pots tightlyaround the body, a little above the hips.... On fascinated by this kind of domestic labor, produced their legs were loose leggings. . .and they wore very three elaborate studies of slave laundresses at work heavy shoes.28

Fig. 14. Fuller. ALABAMA INTERIOR. January 28, 1858. Pencil on paper. ? ' i. ' ; S: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...... ::::*.,,,S>K

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The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 45 Fig. 15. Fuller. ALABAMA INTERIOR.February 1, 1858. Pencil, pen and ink on paper.

Fig. 16. Fuller. ALABAMA INTERIOR. March, 1858. Pencil on paper.

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These blackbondswomen were a worldapart from the chicken.Beyond the familythere is a largedrape cover- genteel, shelteredsphere of nineteenth-centurywhite ing the far wall and looped back to reveal a wide Southernfemininity. aperturelooking out into the yard. The floor is bare, WhetherFuller intendedit or not, the Capitolin and the walls are unplastered. the distance looms as a symbolof authority,in whose Contemporaryprose descriptions suggest that such shadow the women toil. This buildinghad been stand- an interiorwas quite typicalof slave housing.During ing less thana decadewhen Fullersketched its outline. her tour of the South in 1850, the Swedish traveler Designed by Stephen D. Button (1803-1897), an FrederikaBremer visited a slave villageon a plantation architect from Philadelphia,the Capitolexhibits the near Charleston,South Carolina."In the room," she familiarformat of the monumental,classicizing Baroque. reported, "one sees, nearlyalways, a couple of logs Here, almost exactly two years from the time Fuller burningon the hearth,and the householdfurniture and madethis drawing,Jefferson Davis stoodon the portico little provisionstores resemblethose which are to be to be swornin as the firstPresident of theConfederacy. found in the homes of ourpoorest people."29 Olmsted, Fuller'sthree depictions of blacksin theirquarters who had an acutelyjournalistic eye, methodicallyde- (Figs. 14, 15, and 16)afford glimpses into a relatively scribedslave quarterson severallarge plantations. The privatesphere of slavelife. Eagerly pursuing his "Souther basic type of accommodationdid not varysignificantly facts," Fuller incorporatedconsiderable detail into fromone regionto another.On one largeSouth Carolina these interiorscenes. In all three drawingsthe crude, plantation,Olmsted found the slave cabinsfronting a smoke-darkenedfireplace is the most importantfea- street two hundredfeet long. The houses were low ture of the room. The earliestsketch (Fig. 14)shows frame structures,divided into two apartments,each the occupantsof the cabinsomewhat artificially posed havinga common roomand two cubiclesfor sleeping. at the far side of the hearth.The barefootblack mother, Inside, in shawland headscarf,is seatedsideways upon a plain Therewas a brickfireplace in the middleof the longside of ladderbackchair with her three childrencrouched on each livingroom .... Eachtenement is occupied,on the the floorbehind her. Aroundthe aretheir average,by five persons.There were in themclosets, with figures meager locksand anda of rudefurniture.... necessities: iron a and sunbonnet keys, varyingquantity cookingpots, jacket Internallythe cabinsappeared dirty and disordered, which slungfrom pegs on the wall, a rudelycarpentered table was a ratherpleasant indication that theirhome-life was supportinga flatiron and sheltering a basketand a stray not interferedwith.30

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 47 . Fig. 18. Fuller.FUNERAL:,.: NEGRO'NEGRO FUNERAL. . March, 1881858..Pencil Pencil on paper.

The second interiorby Fuller (Fig. 15), made about Negro quartersof log houseswith Plantershouse in sight. a week after the first, reveals a more cluttered room In the foregroundan old womansitting in sunand shadow - the of tends to her cook- nearthe open door lightcolored girl holds skein where a black woman family's meal, for her to wind in a ball- In middledistance are the yarn ing it in iron pots set directly upon smoldering Negro childrenat play, with white boy in papercap and firewood in the hearth. Again, the furnishingsare rough feather. In the right middledistance under the slightly and minimal, but there is a great deal of paraphernalia, slopinghill a womanwashing by the spring.Moss is hang- including a spouted iron kettle, a large mixing bowl, ing from oak branchesover the foreground.Ivy twines about the door.... Cherokeerose in bloom and various other containers; and, hanging in the far hedges Horse-shoenailed over the door. Littlenegroes have sun- From corer, a couple of spoked wheels and two saws. burnedyellowish hair. Chickens look at one another.32 what seems to be an inner room or closet, two small children peer out shyly at the strange Yankee scribbler. A more typically picturesque idea of the South could The last interior (Fig. 16), probably done in late hardly be imagined. March, is a scene of relative domestic comfort and During his last winter in Alabama, Fuller had oc- peace. The woman in the rocking chair is either mend- casion to make observations on slave culture and ritual. ing or making a shirt. Her tidy clothes, and the luxury Shortly after he arrived in Montgomery, the Christmas of her seating, suggest that she may be a house slave. holidays began. For the blacks, this was the most These servants were, as mentioned, better dressed and festive occasion of the year, the only time when they better kept than the field hands. Behind the seamstress were liberated from their duties for several days straight is a simple bed which resembles the type called the and allowed to visit other plantations or go into nearby "Alabama bedstead," a platform built onto the wall towns without the usual restrictions.33 Fuller was en- and supported by a single corer post.31 thralled by the spectacle of the blacks crowding into the A fourth and last domestic scene (Fig. 17) is set city: cabin. the outside, by the doorway to a Again, neat, I wished you to see themduring the Christmasholidays. attractive figures are surely house slaves. This sketch The streetswere filledwith them, come fromthe country must have interested Fuller as a promising foundation for theirpresents and to do shoppingfor the year. Every their for a painting. In his memorandum book he wrote a plantationsends the coloredpart of its familyfor day or two of and of all the creaturesin the world highly pictorial description that corresponds to the enjoyment, they seem fullyable in theirway to makethe mostof their even adds to it. The would drawing and prose passage opportunity.So the old Virginiawagons, drawnby four later have aided him to fill in missing details, had he and six mules,with mounteddriver, who alwaysfeels and actually accomplished such a painting. Fuller wrote: shows the responsibilityof his office,and an importantone

48 Burs/Fuller '. :' ' z

Fig. 19. John Antrobus.NEGRO BURIAL. c. 1860. Oil on canvas,53 x 8112". TheHistoric New OrleansCollection, New Orleans, Louisiana.

if you were to see the roads,with black freight in theirgay he used it as the aide-memoire for his much later paint- attirebecomes an of realinterest.34 [sic] object ing, The Banjo Player (see Fig. 24). The original banjo Making-the most of their artistic opportunities, player no doubt considered himself well rewarded for Fuller and Billings at this time somehow made the his six-hour performance. Blacks very often used acquaintance of a black musician, whom they hired as a whatever spare time they had to earn their own money model: in various ways. Late in March, Fuller witnessed a slave burial, The otherday we hada realplantation Negro Banjo player which he recorded in the sketchbook - as a study for a full length - He played and sang most rapidly (Fig. 18). of the time(six hours)of his sitting,but would get sleepyat The wagon on the left is probably the hearse; the large, times. - We paid him two dollarsfor robbinghim of so subdued crowd of mourners is no doubt surrounding much of his Christmas jollity.... the fellow really did the grave and the chief celebrant of the funeral ritual. It makesome harmony,and there was no wantof zeal, is odd that Fuller did not mention in his letters so Her lips is likethe cherry singular a spectacle. Luckily, the more verbose Olm- Cherrylike the rose sted did describe a similaroccasion, which he had The I likesthis very way yellagall chanced to see in several God Almightyknows.35 Richmond, Virginia, years before. This funeral procession consisted of a "decent Unfortunately, the drawing Fuller made that day is not hearse" and about thirty men and women who fol- with the other Southern sketches and is, as yet, un- lowed it into the country, halting at a "desolate place" located. It is possible that he used a largerformat for so beyond the principal cemetery of the city. The grave protracted a study, and it may have been mislaid after having been dug and the coffin lowered into it, a man

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 49 stepped forwardto deliver an "exhortation",and he was succeededby another,who raiseda hymn,which soon became a confusedchant -the leadersinging a few wordsalone, and the companythen either repeatingthem after him or makinga response to them.... I couldunderstand but very few of thewords. The music was wild and barbarous,but not withouta plaintivemelody. A new leadertook the placeof the old man, when his breathgave out ... and continueduntil the gravewas filled,and a moundraised over it. Finally, two small brancheswere placed at the head and foot of the grave. "A few sentencesof prayerwere then repeatedin a low voice by one of the company, and all dispersed."Olmsted found the ceremonyquite moving:"I was deeplyinfluenced ... by the unaffected feeling, in connectionwith the simplicity,natural, rude truthfulness,and absence of all attemptat formalde- corumin the crowd."36 When Fullerheaded north in April, 1858,he was well equippedto carryout his ideasfor painting truthful images of Southern black life. Had he been able to complete and exhibit those paintingsas planned,his works would have numberedamong the few thendeal- ing objectivelyor exclusivelywith black life. In the last two or three years before the Civil War,there arose a smallbut significantcurrent of artisticawareness of the Southernblacks, theircustoms and manners.Indeed, when Fullerwas enteringthe finalweeks of his timein Fig. 20. Fuller. NEGRONURSE AND CHILD. 1859. Oil on wood Montgomery, his contemporaryThomas Waterman panel, 9x 7".Private collection. Wood (1823-1903)submitted to the NationalAcademy of Design annualexhibition his firstblack genre study, Moses, the Baltimore News Vendor (The Fine Arts Museumsof San Francisco).37The English-bornpor- trait and genre painter John Antrobus (1837-1907) worked in the South in the 1850sand painteda few Deerfieldto assume managementof the familyfarm. scenes of plantationlife, includingNegro Burial(Fig. He did not become a full-timeartist again until 1876, 19),a morefully realizedcounterpart to Fuller'sNegro although while farminghe did producea numberof Funeral drawing. It is interestingthat Antrobuswas sketches and oil paintings.Of these works, only two active in Montgomeryfor some timearound 1855, but it relatedto Fuller'sSouthern experiences: Negro Nurse is uncertainwhether either Billingsor Fullerknew of and Child (Fig. 20) and Interior, Negro Quarters (pre- his work on black subjects.38In 1859,the year after sent locationunknown). Fuller's return from the South, Eastman Johnson Before leaving Montgomery,Fuller had already (1824-1906) exhibitedhis exceedinglypopular Negro paintedthe firstwork to representhis "new way" in art Life in the South, now called The Old Kentucky Home (Figs. 21 and 22); this was an AlabamaInterior based (The New-York Historical Society), a realistic but on his sketches.39Late in 1859he executed the small stereotypedcomposite of picturesqueblack characters oval Negro Nurse and Child, representingone of those in a stagy, dilapidatedsetting. enduringSouthern archetypes: the amplemammy at- Fuller must have hoped for a like success and tendinga delicatewhite child. He workedon thispaint- recognitionthrough his paintingsof Southernsubjects. ing shortly prior to embarkingfor his only tour of Unhappily,the death of his fatherin 1859obliged him Europe in the winterof 1860.Fuller was pleasedwith to renounce his professionalactivity and returnto his work. In a letter to his fiancee, he mentionedthat

50 Burs/Fuller -

' * ' ' * : ....' :- e .- d...'" .: '?? ex. *;-';ql ;. -:" -':*:*'-.'**c::. :* - ...^ *'-::S :'<:- . .-: ^-: : . - * Figs. 21 and 22. Letterfrom GeorgeFuller to HarrietFuller, Montgomery, March 26, 1858.Collection, Fuller-Higginson Papers, The MemorialLibraries, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library, Deerfield, Massachusetts.

"the little negro nurse one looks well in its frame."40 he wrote to another old friend, the sculptorJohn Quincy At first, Fuller supposed that farmingwould be but Adams Ward (1830-1910), to announce that he intended a temporary digression, from which he would soon to send five paintings to the National Academy of return to his art. He underestimated the potential de- Design that year.41 In the end, however, Fuller sent mands of the farm, to which were quickly added his only two studies, Study of a Head and Study from marriage to Agnes Higginson in 1861 and the arrivalof Nature (present locations unknown). The 1870Interior, children, ultimately five. Early in 1868, Fuller realized Negro Quarters was most likely one of those scenes that he had not been represented at the National Aca- mentioned in the letter to H.K. Brown. Fuller had not demy of Design exhibition since 1857, when he had' finished it in time for the National Academy exhibition sent in Portrait of a Lady (present location unknown). but continued to work on it over the next two years. Now, very suddenly, Fuller concentrated on produc- The remainder of Fuller's black genre paintings ing paintings for the 1868 show. He remembered his date from the last decade of his life. They are: Negro Alabama drawings and his erstwhile aim to make his Boy with Goat (Fig. 23), The Banjo Player (Fig. 24), mark as a genre painter. In a letter to his old friend and Turkey Pasture in Kentucky (Fig. 25), Negro Washing mentor, the sculptor (1814- 1886), (1878-1883; present location unknown), Interior of Fuller wrote that he was doing "Alabama (negro) in- Negro Quarters (Fig. 27), The Quadroon (Fig. 28), teriors" from the sketches of ten years ago, and he was Negro Funeral, Alabama (Fig. 29), Hoeing Tobacco "pleased with [his] efforts in this way." A month later (Fig. 30), and Interior of a Negro Cabin (Fig. 31). The

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 51 Fig. 23. Fuller. NEGROBOY WITH GOAT. 1874. Oil on canvas. Dimensionsunavailable. Pri- vate collection.

Fig. 24. Fuller. THE BANJOPLAYER. 1876. Oil on canvas, 17 x 21". Collection,Mrs. Emily Abercrombie.

known works, with the exception of The Banjo Player, to the formation of Fuller's late style. In his black genre display Fuller's late style, which is broad, atmospheric, paintings, Fuller also translatedbucolic Barbizon senti- low-toned, and nebulous. By this time, Fuller's inten- ment into regional American terms.42 tions had changed. He wished to make evocative, moody The Banjo Player seems to be Fuller's attempt to images rather than factual studies. The example of the achieve the rich, solid realism of an artist such as French Barbizon painters, especially Jean-FranCois Eastman Johnson. The attempt was not entirely suc- Millet and Jean-Baptiste-CamilleCorot, had contributed cessful, although the painting is interesting, neverthe-

52 Bums/Fuller Fig. 25. Fuller. TURKEY PASTURE IN KENTUCKY. 1878. Oil on canvas, 271/2x 40'k". Collection, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Fig. 26. Lithograph after Constant Troyon's LA GARDEUSEDE DINDONS.17x 12".Private collection. Fig. 27. Fuller. INTERIOROF NEGRO QUARTERS. C. 1878. Oil on cradled panel, 171/2x 2 12". Collection,Robert C. Vose,Jr.

less. Here the figure of the musician, surely based on moody landscapes; black genre was a minor part of his Fuller's 1858 study of the "real plantationNegro Banjo remaining production. However, the TurkeyPasture in player," is set into a composition derived from the 1858 Kentucky and The Quadroon, both shown in New drawing of the cabin interior (see Fig. 15) in which a York at the National Academy of Design (in 1878 and black mother watches her cooking on the hearth. The 1880, respectively), are among the best works of his picturesque clutter of that interior reappears here with last years. some variations, such as the alert rooster behind the The Turkey Pasture in Kentucky may have been banjo player's chair and the delicately painted corncob based on Fuller's memories of the South, although no in the lower left corer. The color, quite dark and sketches of this subject survive. During the winter of earthy throughout, unifies the composition to some 1856-1857 Fuller made a brief excursion from Mobile degree, but the general effect is somewhat wooden and to Louisville, Kentucky, and at this time he could have lifeless. It is as if Fuller were mechanically creating a observed such a sight, highly characteristic of the re- pastiche too labored and literal for his mature style and gion. Kentucky's major crop was tobacco, a plant taste. vulnerable to devastation by hornworms. Many farmers Fuller exhibited The Banjo Player with thirty-two maintained flocks of turkeys to parole the tobacco other paintings at Boston's Doll and Richards Gallery fields and gorge themselves on the hornworm popula- in March, 1876. This first one-man show, which Fuller tion.43 Fuller's motif, however, is at least partially hoped would raise money enough to reverse his farm's indebted to France. He owned a lithograph (see Fig. precarious financial situation, marked the beginning of 26) after Constant Troyon's painting, La Gardeuse de an unexpectedly successful late career. In advancing dindons. Troyon's design is obviously different, but middle age, Fuller finally gained fame, modest fortune, the spirit of ruraltranquillity is the same. Fuller's Turkey and critical approval. His reputation arose mainly Pasture in Kentucky therefore representsa nearly seam- through his images of wistful Yankee girls and his less meshing of Barbizon sentimentwith a regionalidiom

54 Burns/Fuller Fig. 28. Fuller.THE QUADROON. 1880.Oil on canvas, 501/2x 4012". Collection, The Metropolitan MuseumofArt, New York,Gift of GeorgeA. Hearn, 1910.

symbolized by the young black turkey herders. Veiled therefore bound her to servitude. As with the Turkey by a cool green atmosphere, the work is more painterly, Pasture in Kentucky, here again Barbizon feeling and less realistic, than The Banjo Player.44 permeates a regional motif. Fuller's figure recalls the The origin of The Quadroon may be traced back to genre of the tired peasant or the thoughtfulshepherdess Fuller's first trip south, when he indignantlywitnessed frequently encountered in the art of Millet, Jules Breton, the sale of a beautiful quadroon girl at auction. Rather and other painters of French rurallife. than construct a slavemarket narrative, Fuller created The sentimental appeal of Fuller's The Quadroon a simple image of a melancholy young woman brooding has other associations as well. Although she was painted alone while her fellow slaves toil in the cotton field in 1880, her counterparts are to be found in the anti- behind her. His intention was to suggest the hopeless- slavery literature of the 1840s and 1850s. A number of ness of the quadroon's lot: her one-quarter blackness abolitionist works of fiction featured as heroine an outweighed the larger proportion of white blood and exotically beautiful quadroon or octoroon, the tainted

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 55 Fig. 29. Fuller. NEGROFUNERAL, ALABAMA. c. 1881-1884. Oil on canvas, 173/4x 30". Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, BequestofAnna PerkinsRogers.

but blameless victim of the Southern caste system. Smithsonian Institution), also exhibited at the National Whether the outcome of such tales was happy or tragic, Academy of Design in 1880. Homer's painting deals the quadroon was invariably subjected to terrible suf- starkly with postbellum Southern realities; Fuller's ferings and indignities, against which she was power- makes poetry of history. less. Because of her beauty, her helplessness, and her The four remaining paintings of black subjects are near-whiteness, the quadroon appeared as a highly also vague recollections of things seen sharply long pathetic figure, more so, perhaps, than the slave of ago. The broadly painted Negro Funeral, Alabama is purely African ancestry. quite unlike the 1858drawing (see Fig. 18)on which it is Fuller's own previously quoted remarks about the presumably based. The sketch is a dry, little record of a slave auction indicate that his reaction to the quad- slave gathering. The painting is not at all factual, but roon's situation paralleled that of the abolitionists. In- rather expresses something of that raw, spontaneous deed, he was quite familiarwith at least one representa- emotion that so impressed Frederick Law Olmsted as tive novel. Richard Hildreth, his uncle by marriage, the most compelling characteristic of the black burial published in 1838 The Slave; or Memoirs of Archy ritual. Hoeing Tobacco, a freely painted impression of Moore, reissued as The White Slave; or, Memoirs of a black field workers, conveys a sense of physical Fugitive in editions of 1840 and 1852.45 Fuller's The energy, rather than specific information, through the Quadroon should therefore be seen and understood not rhythmic marks of the brush. Interiorof Negro Quarters simply as a native offshoot of the French peasant but is based on the third of the domestic interiors (see Fig. also as an image recollecting the American past and 16) in the Alabama sketchbook. In the painting the Fuller's own experience. Fuller's melancholy romanti- figure in the rocking chair is clearly the same, but most cism can best be appreciated by contrasting The Quad- of the documentary detail has been omitted.46 Simi- roon with Winslow Homer's The Visit from the Old larly, in Fuller's Interior of a Negro Cabin the room, Mistress (1876; National Museum of American Art, the figure by the hearth, and the hearth itself are de-

56 Burns/Fuller ...

rived from the first of the Alabama interior drawings With the exception of TurkeyPasture in Kentucky (see Fig. 14). The three black childrenhave disappeared, and The Quadroon, Fuller's paintings of black life were and the center of the room is dominated by a light, little known. His trips to Georgia and Alabama were girlish figure occupied with what may be a piece of dismissed as interesting digressions by William Dean knitting. A mellow brown atmosphere veils the scene Howells, author of an importantbiographical sketch of and gives the figures a remote, shadowy quality. There the artist.47Several of the paintings appeared briefly in is an utter absence of reportage. It is less a genre the Fuller Memorial Exhibition at the Museum of Fine painting than a reverie on distant experience. Arts, Boston, April 24-May 13, 1884, and others were

.... 3- .;. '.?.*"'i*. _ ^ .. .. ; , _

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Fig. 30. Fuller.HOEING TOBAC- co. 1882- 1884.Oil on canvas, 241/sx181/s". Theodore T. and Mary G. Ellis Collection, WorcesterArt Museum.

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 57 Fig. 31. Fuller.INTERIOR OF A NEGRO CABIN. 1882. Oil on canvas, 20 x 24".Photo- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..,,,~~,,,,~ ...... , , graph,The Raydon Gallery, New York. _ * ** ., ._ ' '

aJ . *: ^ .*.'*^ !|(i ' 4* g^H 4hb * * tv' *j

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offered at the Administrator's Sale of Fuller's paint- gradualbut certain course towarda democraticline of ings, held at Chickering Hall, Boston, on May 9, 1884, effort ....48 after the artist's death. Most critics reviewing the ex- Whether Fuller's impulse sprang from democratic hibition or attending the sale wrote nothing about the convictions is an open question. He was, after all, an black genre pictures; they directed their comments to artist in search of humble but picturesque themes. more famous and more typical examples of Fuller's Through his images of slavery he sought neither to late style. expose its evils nor to dramatize, sentimentalize, or An exception was the critic Charles De Kay, writ- stereotype its victims. His early drawings are distinc- ing five years after Fuller's death. Remembering the tive for their simplicity, directness, and great topical black genre paintings at the Memorial Exhibition and interest. The paintings are uneven in value, but the best the Fuller sale, De Kay commented: among them are aesthetically and thematically signifi- . . earlierin his career,Fuller had the democraticfeeling cant as well. Although the drawings remained hidden towardlabour and labourerswhich does not alwaysavail and the paintings had little impact in their time, Fuller's to break down the barrierof colour betweenthe races. black now seems one of the most When most the and hatedhim for genre intriguing people despised negro facets of his Most of the causinga fratricidalwar to holdtogether the Union,he was production. all, drawings alreadypainting the slave .... we maygather from these afford brief but telling glimpses of the antebellumSouth, paintingsthat want of appreciationarrested Fuller in a perceived through attentive Northern eyes.

The researchfor this articlecould not have beenaccomplished (1822-1884)," The American Art Journal, vol. XIII, no. 4 (Autumn, withoutthe helpof MaryMarsh, Catherine Arms, Jeffrey Legler, and 1981), pp. 1 -37. All of the memoandaand letters cited below are in David Proper,Librarian, The MemorialLibraries, Deerfield, Mas- the Fuller-HigginsonPapers, in The MemorialLibraries (Pocumtuck sachusetts.I gratefullyacknowledge theirgenerous assistance. ValleyMemorial Association Libary and the Hey N. FlyntLibray) in Deerfield,Massachusetts. Those portionsof the Fuller-Higginson 1. For a recentbiographical and critical survey of Fuller'scareer see Paperscited here are: The Papersof GeorgeFuller, The apersof SarahBums, "A Studyof the Lifeand Poetic Vision of GeorgeFuller Agnes HigginsonFuller, The Papersof ElijahFuller, and The Papers

58 Burns/Fuller of HarrietFuller. After the firstcomplete citation for materialfrom fromFuller's stay in Mobile,1856-1857, most of the sketcheswere each sectionof the Fuller-HigginsonPapers, passages from the letters certainlymade in Montgomeryduring the winterof 1857-1858,with will be noted by the name of the recipientand the date of the the concentrationof productionbetween late January and the endof correspondence,except in cases where such briefcitations are not February,1858. This is assuming,of course,that Fuller used his pages clear,as withFuller's letters to friendsrather than relatives. in the customarysequential manner, as seemsto be thecase. Onecan deducethe datesof theuninscribed 2. Letterfrom Sanford Gifford to ElisiusMowry, November 21, 1849, thereby approximate drawingsby of The Memorial referringto the datedones beforeand after. There are two anomalies, in The Papers GeorgeFuller, Libraries,Deerfield, bothattributable to the commonhuman in Massachusetts.In neitherhis lettersnor diaries did Fuller mention the error,early anynew year, of the numberof the first nameof the steamerthat took him to Charleston. absentmindedlywriting previousyear. The such erroroccurs in the end-paperinscription: "G. Fuller/Mobile/ 3. GeorgeFuller, 1850 Diary, entries for Monday,February 18, 1850, Ala Feby 56." Fullershould have written"Feby 57"; in February, and Wednesday,March 6, 1850,in ThePapers of GeorgeFuller, The 1856,he was indisputablyin New YorkCity. The secondwrong date MemorialLibraries, Deerfield, Massachusetts. is inscribedon the drawingThe Laundry Yard (see Fig. 10):"Mtg'y Since it is knownthat Fullerhad 4. Fuller, 1850 entriesfor 10,Sun- Jan'y28/57." by January28, 1857, George Diary, Sunday,February been in Mobilefor two weeks,it follows that The Yard day, April7, andSaturday, April 20. nearly Laundry must have been made on January28, 1858.This suppositionis re- 5. Fragmentof letter(salutation missing), January 26, 1850,in The inforcedby the fact that TheLaundry Yard is partof a sequenceof Papersof George Fuller,The MemorialLibraries, Deerfield, Mas- drawingsthat were definitely done in Montgomeryin 1858. sachusetts. 22. Letterto HarrietFuller, December 12, 1857. 6. Letterto the artist'ssister Harriet Fuller, February 15, 1856,in The of Papersof HarrietFuller, The MemorialLibraries, Deerfield, Mas- 23. For an account slave hiringand transportsee KennethM. sachusetts. Stampp, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South (New York,1956), pp. 67-73 and261 -263. 7. Letterto the artist'sbrother Elijah Fuller, January 21, 1857,in The Papersof ElijahFuller, The MemorialLibraries, Deerfield, Massa- 24. Letterto HarrietFuller, January 3, 1858. chusetts. 25. On slave dress see Stampp, The Peculiar Institution,pp. 290-292, and 8. Letterto HarrietFuller, January 12, 1857. Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom,p. 82. The referenceto the "Virginiapoke" is in AlbertBurton Moore, History of Alabamaand 9. Letterto ElijahFuller, January 21, 1857. her People(Chicago, 1927), vol. I, p. 188. 10. Frederick Law Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveler's 26. Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom, p. 184; Stampp, The Peculiar Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States Institution, p. 292. (firstedition, 1861),ed. and introd.by ArthurM. Schlesinger(New 27. Moore, History of Alabama, vol. I, p. 418. York, 1953),p. 214. 28. Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom, p. 161. 11. Lettersto HarrietFuller, February 28, 1857,and to ElijahFuller, January21, 1857.For a concisedescription of the historyand charac- 29. Frederika Bremer, Homes of the New World; Impressions of ter of Mobile, see Virginiavan der Veer Hamilton,Alabama: A America,tr. MaryHowitt (New York,1854), vol. I, p. 374. Bicentennial History (New York, 1977),pp. 155-158. 30. Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom, pp. 184- 185. 12.Letters to Fuller, 18, 1857,and June 16, 1857. Elijah April 31. On domesticslaves see Stampp,The Peculiar Institution, pp. 59, 13. Letterto the artist'shalfbrother, Augustus Fuller, May 16, 1858, 337-339, and John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community:Planta- inThe Papersof AugustusFuller, The Memorial Libraries, Deerfield, tion Life in the Antebellum South, 2nd ed., rev. (New York, 1979),pp. Massachusetts. 250-251. The Alabama bedstead is described in Hamilton, Alabama: A Bicentennial History, p. 61. 14.For information on the BelmontCollection, see PeterBermingham, American Art in the Barbizon Mood, catalogue to the exhibition held 32. Fuller,"April in Alabama,"1857- 1858Memorandum Book (un- at the NationalCollection of Fine Arts (Washington,D.C., 1975), paginated),in The Papersof GeorgeFuller, The Memorial Libraries, p. 45. The Hon. AugustBelmont, former minister to theNetherlands, Deerfield,Massachusetts. also collected paintingsby Ary Scheffer, Rosa Bonheur,Ernest 33. The Peculiar 169- Meissonier,Thomas Couture,and ConstantTroyon. On Edouard Stampp, Institution,pp. 170;Blassingame, The Slave 107. Fr&re,see Gabriel P. Weisberg, The Realist Tradition,French Paint- Community, p. ing and Drawing 1830- 900, catalogue to the exhibition held at the 34. Letterto AgnesHigginson, January 24, 1858. ClevelandMuseum of Art(1980), pp. 42, 96, 99, 106,213, 290. 35. Letterto HarrietFuller, January 3, 1858. 15. Letterto Harrietand ElijahFuller, November 15, 1857,in The Papersof HarrietFuller, The MemorialLibraries, Deerfield, Massa- 36. Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom, pp. 34-37. chusetts. 37. On ThomasWaterman Wood, see CharlesChilds and William C. 16. Lettersto ElijahFuller, January 29, 1858,and April 18, 1858. Lipke, Thomas Waterman Wood, P.N.A., 1823-1903, catalogue to the exhibitionheld at The WoodArt Gallery (Montpelier, Vermont, 17. Letterto HarrietFuller, March 26, 1858. 1972). 18. Letterto the artist's fiancee,Agnes Higginson, January 24, 1858, 38. For Antrobussee the entry in GeorgeC. Groceand DavidH. in The Papersof Agnes HigginsonFuller, The MemorialLibraries, Wallace, The New- YorkHistorical Artists in Massachusetts. Society's Dictionary of Deerfield, To date it is not knownwhether Edwin America1564- 1860(New Haven,1957), 12,and Patricia Hills, The Southernsketches still exist. p. Billings's Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910, catalogue to the exhibitionheld at the Museumof AmericanArt 19. This informationis synthesizedfrom Hamilton,Alabama: A Whitney (New York, 62, 141. Bicentennial History, pp. 119- 122. 1974),pp. 39. Letter to 20. Letterto AgnesHigginson, January 24, 1858. HarrietFuller, March 26, 1858.This paintinghas not been found. It is possiblethat Fuller painted over it, or reworkedit, 21. Witha coupleof exceptions,the datingof the sketchbookdraw- for one of the later Alabamainterior scenes, discussedlater in the ings is straightforward.While two or threeof the drawingsmay date article.

The American Art Journal/Summer 1983 59 40. Letterto AgnesHigginson, December 18, 1859. (1855); Mayne Reid, The Quadroon: or, A Lover's Adventures in M. 41. Letter to Kirke and letterto Louisiana (1856); Roland Markham, Alcar, the Captive Creole Henry Brown,February 14, 1868, Dion The Octoroon a based on John AdamsWard, March 17, 1868,in The of (1857); Boucicault, (1859), play Mayne Quincy Papers George Reid'snovel; and H.L. Hosmer,Adela, the Octoroon Fuller,The MemorialLibraries, Deerfield, Massachusetts. (1860). For a discussionof the genrein anothercontext, see VivienM. 42. For a detaileddiscussion of Fuller'sinterest in FrenchBarbizon Green, "HiramPowers's Greek Slave: Emblemof Freedom,"The painting,see Bums, "The Lifeand Poetic Vision of GeorgeFuller," AmericanArt Journal,vol. XIV, no. 4 (Autumn,1982), pp. 31-39, pp. 30-33. especiallypp. 36-37. 43. Ulrich B. Phillips, Life and Labor in the Old South (Boston, 1929), 46. Initiallyit was thoughtthat Interior of Negro Quarterswas the p. 113. unlocated 1870painting mentioned by Fullerin his letterto H.K. 44. The after La Gardeusede dindonsremains in Brown (see note 41). However, the style, which featuresblurred lithograph Troyon's and withbrush and brush indicatesthat the Fuller and it was found in a portfoliocontaining other shapes heavyscoring handle, family, the correctdate must be in the late whenFuller to George Fullermemorabilia. Another painting by Fulleron the same 1870s, began paint muchmore andeven It is thatInterior theme,Girl with Turkeys (1884), is in the Los AngelesCounty Museum freely experimentally. possible is the c. 1878 of Art. The singleturkey herder here is a whitewoman, whose pose, of Negro Quarters paintingBefore the Fire, so named in the "List of Fuller'sWorks" in JosiahB. with turkeysclustering at herfeet, is clearlyreminiscent of the figure Millet,ed., GeorgeFuller, His and Works 91. Another is that in the Troyonlithograph. Life (Boston, 1886),p. possibility this work is the 1870painting and was heavilyreworked by Fuller 45. For a discussionof this literarygenre, see LorenzoDow Turner, some timeafter 1878.Fuller occasionally submitted paintings to such Anti-Slavery Sentiment in American Literatureprior to 1865 (1929; continuingrevisions. New York,1966), and Judith R. Berzon,Neither White norBlack: rpt. 47. WilliamDean "Sketch of Fuller's in The Mulatto Character in American Fiction (New York, 1978). In Howells, George Life," additionto RichardHildredth's novel, works concernedwith the George Fuller, His Life and Works,ed. by Josiah b. Millet (Boston, 25. trialsof the mulattoor quadroonincluded Lydia Maria Child's short 1886)p. story, "TheQuadroons" (1849); William Wells Brown, Clotel, or, The 48. CharlesDe Kay, "GeorgeFuller, Painter," The Magazine ofArt, President's Daughter; A Narrative of Slave Life in the vol. XII (1889),p. 354. (1853); Elizabeth D. Livermore, Zoe, or The Quadroon's Triumph

60 Bums/Fuller