Biography
Harry Roseland was born in Brooklyn, New York where he would train and develop as an artist for the majority of his life. Roseland began his artistic career under the guidance of portraitist John Bernard Whittaker at the Adelphia Art Academy before furthering his studies with J. Carroll Beckwith in New York City. Perhaps inspired by Beckwith’s breadth of subject matter – the artist was noted for his landscapes, genre paintings, and portraits – Roseland did not limit himself to one type of painting, but instead, offered seascapes, paintings of American life, and portraits to the public throughout his career.
Although Roseland experimented with many genres, his most widely-known compositions were those that focused on the lives of black Americans, most of which were set in the South. Interestingly, the artist likely never traveled to this region of the country, and so relied upon New England conceptions and stereotypes of Southern blacks for his genre scenes. One figure often featured by Roseland was that of the exotic fortune-teller paired with a fair-skinned bourgeois woman. Like many works of the time, these paintings were popular enough to be etched and distributed in print form to a broader audience; some, such as Reading Her Fortune, were even published in Harper’s Weekly.
Roseland’s genre scenes form an important chapter of the American Experience by allowing present-day viewers to understand widespread cultural beliefs present in post-Civil War America. The artist’s works were exhibited by a number of associations including the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Society of Independent Artists. Roseland was also honored as a member of the Salmagundi Club and won several awards such as the gold medal at exhibitions such as the Brooklyn Art Club (1888), in Boston (1904), and at the 1907 exhibition for the American Art Society. Today, his work is featured in the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Heckscher Museum.
Selected Bibliography
Baekeland, Frederick. Images of America: The Painter’s Eye, 1833-1925. Birmingham, AL: Birmingham Museum of Art, 1973.
Edwards, Lee M. Domestic Bliss, Family Life in American Painting, 1840 –1910. Yonkers, NY: The Hudson River Museum, 1986.
Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564 – 1975: 400 Years of Artists in America. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.
Opitz, Glenn B., ed. Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, 2nd ed. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo Book, 1986.
