Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828–1901) was a Canadian-born New England oil painter of the American Barbizon school. He and his wife Christiana were active in the African-American abolitionist community in Boston. Bannister won first prize for his art at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and was a founding member of the Providence Art Club and the Rhode Island School of Design. His style and pastoral subjects were influenced by Jean-François Millet and the French Barbizon school. He also looked to the seaside for inspiration for his often experimental and Idealistic use of color and atmosphere. He worked as a photographer and portraitist before progressing to landscapes. His style fell out of favor later in his life; he and Christiana moved out of College Hill in Providence to Boston and then a smaller house in Providence. He was overlooked after his death in 1901, until the National Museum of African Art and others returned him to national attention in the 1960s and 1970s. (Full article...)