Road Trip
Julien Hudson Exhibition at Worcester Art Museum
Exhibition of Free Artists of Color Who Painted in Slavery-Era
An exhibition of portraits by one of America’s earliest documented painters of African descent, Julien Hudson, is about to change. A newly unearthed painting by Hudson, found in Rhode Island, was authenticated last month and will be shown for the first time at the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) on the last stop of the traveling exhibition entitled In Search of Julien Hudson: Free Artist of Color in Pre-Civil War New Orleans.
Portrait of a Lady, on loan from a private collector, is an exciting find of Hudson’s rare artwork. It joins the exhibition of free artists of color who painted during the slavery era, and is on view through March 11, 2012.
“This show is historic in that it brings together all the surviving works by Hudson, including, at WAM only, a recently discovered, genuine sixth work of art by him,” said William Keyse Rudolph, Ph.D., a co-curator of the exhibition while at WAM and now a curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum. “His life is full of questions we can't answer: We thought only five works survived him; works that were authenticated and signed by him. Those five works have never been exhibited together as a group before this exhibition, even though Hudson was becoming one of the most celebrated historic African American artists in scholarship on the artist.”
Co-curated by the Worcester Art Museum and the Historic New Orleans Collection, In Search of Julien Hudson offers an intimate look at an historic African-American artist with a small, but significant body of work that is not well known outside of Louisiana. The exhibition presents the story of a remarkable moment in a community of creative people, through the focus on one of their most famous and celebrated members, including a 360-degree view of the world in which he operated. The exhibition includes not only the work of Julien Hudson, but also that of his contemporaries and teachers-- both white and of color, as well as the work of his only surviving student.
Rudolph explains that, “In Search of is aptly named because it has been a continual search to find and authenticate Hudson’s rare works. In fact, many pieces on display have, at various times and with varying degrees of probability, been attributed to Hudson. As such, the exhibition invites museum guests to interpret their own conclusions about Hudson and his very unique world in pre-Civil War Louisiana.”
In his portraits, Hudson explores the influence of free people of color in New Orleans during the 19th century. Depicting typically seated subjects, Hudson often used a hazy, gray-blue sky and open countryside, reflecting an idealized landscape that juxtaposed his urban life. His subjects were depicted with long noses, narrow faces, and large eyes similar to the work of his mentors.
Hudson is the second earliest-known portraitist of African heritage to have worked in the United States and serves as an example of the mobility available to native-born free men of color.
From the early 18th century to the close of the Civil War, New Orleans was home to the largest population of free people of color. Hudson was born there in 1811 to a property-owning, free woman of color and a white English merchant. His study of portraiture began in his youth in the mid-1820s in New Orleans, training with miniaturist Antonio Meucci and later with German painter Franz Fleischbein. Twice, he travelled to Paris where he practiced his craft under the tutelage of well-known French painter Alexandre-Denis Abel de Pujol. Hudson’s career, cut short by his death at age 33 years old, left an indelible impression on the art and history of free men of color.
The three-city tour, which began in New Orleans, will make its final stop at the Worcester Art Museum -- the only Northeastern venue -- and runs from December 9 through March 11, 2012. The exhibition is funded in part by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the National Endowment of the Arts.
The Worcester Art Museum opened in 1898 and serves Worcester and the regional community. With its encyclopedic collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, prints, drawings and new media, it is one of America’s most respected art institutions. For more information, visit worcesterart.org.
