The Redwood Library and Athenaeum has opened “Robert Duncanson: Landscapes to Freedom,” an exhibition arguing that the 19th century Black landscape painter encoded routes of the Underground Railroad into his work.
The show runs through January 2027 at the Redwood, its only venue, and comprises 28 paintings and site photographs from the collection of Michael Meyer, whom the library describes as the leading authority on the artist.
Leca and Meyer will discuss the exhibition Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Harrison Room, with viewing and a reception at 6 p.m., the presentation at 6:30 and questions at 7:15. Admission is $10 for members and $20 for others.
The exhibition’s argument is that Duncanson’s forests, rivers and pastoral views are not apolitical scenery but depictions of specific places along established escape routes north and into Canada — painted in a genre innocuous enough to pass unremarked, and sold to abolitionist collectors, some of whom likely sheltered people escaping slavery.
Duncanson traveled through Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia as a Black man after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and later through New England along the Grand Trunk Railway corridor. The library says he is the only artist known to have painted escape routes originating in the Deep South, including Caesar’s Head in South Carolina.
“This is one of the most remarkable stories in American art,” said Leca, crediting Meyer with locating paintings and studies, photographing sites in the Appalachians and correcting long-held errors in the record.
The exhibition is sponsored by BankNewport. Registration for the Oct. 8 talk is at redwoodlibrary.org.
