Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Joe Biden's 'Poignant' Inaugural Painting

[Judi Lynn]

Eleanor Harvey posits that the 1859 landscape’s message of hope resonated with First Lady Jill Biden, who helped select the artwork



Robert S. Duncanson's Landscape With Rainbow (1859) “carries with it an unmistakable ray of hope,” per the Los Angeles Times. “Rainbows typically appear after a storm has passed, not before.” (Smithsonian American Art Museum / Gift of Leonard and Paula Granoff)

By Nora McGreevy
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
JANUARY 21, 2021

On Wednesday, Republican Senator Roy Blunt presented the newly inaugurated president of the United States, Joe Biden, with a painting on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) especially for the occasion: Robert S. Duncanson’s Landscape With Rainbow, an 1859 landscape of green fields dotted with cows. In the work, a tiny couple strolls across a lush countryside as cattle graze serenely under a lilac sky. A rainbow shimmers overhead.

In a normal year, this “inaugural painting” would have served as the backdrop for the Senate Inaugural Luncheon and a symbol of the incoming administration’s agenda. But the 59th inaugural ceremonies were anything but normal: The traditional meal was canceled, attendance was limited and all parties donned face masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The president and First Lady Jill Biden received the painting in the Capitol Rotunda—the same room overtaken by an angry mob just two weeks earlier.

The first lady helped select Landscape, which was returned to SAAM following the event. As senior curator Eleanor Jones Harvey says in an email, SAAM is among the institutions typically asked to propose artworks for the event. (Per the Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott, the tradition is a relatively recent one, only dating back to Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985.) When the museum’s staff started preparing a list of options, Duncanson’s work “immediately rose to the top of our list,” the curator adds.

Born in 1821, Duncanson was a painter of mixed-race descent who became one of the most successful African American artists of his generation. Though his 1859 scene appears to capture a peaceful moment, some elements hint at “an America on the brink of catastrophe,” as art critic Christopher Knight notes for the Los Angeles Times. In the golden light of the setting sun, nighttime approaches, prompting the cows to move toward the safety of a farmhouse just visible in the background.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-know-about-president-joe-bidens-inaugural-painting-landscape-rainbow-180976803/

[Kittycow]

1. It's lovely and so appropriate :)

[mobeau69]

2. Beautiful except for the rainbow. Wonder what the deal is with it.

[Hekate]

3. It's a common signifier for hope following a storm; only in this case the country was on the edge...

...of the Civil War, so may signify hope for the end of strife.

“God gave Noah the rainbow sign...”

[mobeau69]

4. I understand that. It's that it almost looks like a tornado instead of a rainbow.

[Croney]

5. I made this my FB cover on inauguration morning:

GMTA! Ha

[Maxheader]

6. That's cool, that's cool..

Lets hope the indication of unity flows for all time...at least 4 years...

[Karadeniz]

7. Wow, another piece of govt protocol we learn about! Who knew that the Smithsonian loaned out a

Painting for a day... did Jill realize she'd have to make time in her schedule to select one... Good thing she didn't also have to decide on a menu... The protocol rule book must be as thick as the Biden family Bible!