MS01.01.03.B01.F25.013

12

Blacks who showed pride of [crossed out: the] race and a sense
of [crossed out: accomplishment] dignity equal to that seen
among subjects of persons of the majority culture.

This portrait of (SLIDE #16) [u]Abraham Hanson[/u] done around
1825 was painted by Jeremiah Pearson Hardy. [crossed out: , who]
Hardy was born in New Hampshire in 1800. He settled in Maine in
1811 where he worked from 1824 until his death in 1888. His
portrait of the well known Bangor, Maine barber abolitionist
and humorist, Abraham, is one of the first images of an American
Black created to celebrate the individual personage of one over
and against the service one may have rendered another person.10
Abraham, as he was affectionately known in all of Bangor's lively
social circles, is said to have taken the Abolitionist cause seriously
and offered his talent as a highly respected barber to an exclusive
white community to politic in the favor of anti-slavery causes and
the freedom movement. He was equally well known for the sale
of sumptuous dinners of "finger licking" fried chicken, the proceeds
from which he turned over to Abolitionist and [crossed out: anti-slavery causes] for the aid of refugees of the Greek Civil War.

Another painting entitled (SLIDE #17) [u]Portrait of a Gentleman[/u]
in the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, executed
about the same time as Hardy's portrait of Abraham, shows a
handsome Black gentlement of mixed ancestry graciously attired
in the fashionalbe style of his day. Painted around 1830, the work
is not signed and at the present time not attributed to any known artist.

I wish also to share with you what some writers have singled out
as the black portrait which while attempting to show dignity of
character instead reveals the prime depiction of the "noble savage."12
The work to which I refer is the (SLIDE #18) [u]Portrait of Cinque[/u]
by Nathaniel Jocelyn painted in 1840. Jocelyn, no doubt, considered