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Scipio Moorhead

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

African-American artist

Phillis Wheatley, possibly based on a portrait by Scipio Moorhead, in the frontispiece to her bookPoems on Various Subjects.

Scipio Moorhead (active c. 1773-after 1775) was an enslavedAfrican-American artist who lived inBoston, Massachusetts. Moorhead is known through the contemporary African-American poetPhillis Wheatley's poem, dedicated "To S. M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works", published inPoems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, 1773. His full name was learned from periodmarginalia.

Moorhead was enslaved by Reverend John Moorhead of Boston, Massachusetts.^[1] His drawing talents were tutored by the reverend's wifeSarah Moorhead, who was an art teacher.^[2] Although enslaved, Scipio Moorhead enjoyed some workers' freedoms. No original work by Scipio has survived, but he may be the person referred to by aBoston News-Letter advertisement on January 7, 1773, which spoke of a "negro artist... A negro of extraordinary genius."^[3]

It is possible that thecopperplate engraving of Phillis Wheatley that adorns much of her published poetry is his creation.^[4] In the 19th century Wheatley's fame was revived by Massachusettsabolitionists and many stories about her were recovered through oral history, but Moorhead was never mentioned, so the attribution to him is uncertain; it was first publicly suggested by the Wheatley scholar William H. Robinson in 1984. However, it has been recognized that the portrait is highly unusual. It resembles contemporary portraits by the famous Bostonian painterJohn Singleton Copley, but unlike any of Copley's work, it portrays a woman writing a poem deep in thought. The novelty of the portrait was recognized and imitated by Bostonian printers when it was engraved for an edition of Wheatley's poetry in 1773, but the artist's name was never mentioned.^[5] It is the firstfrontispiece depicting a woman writer in American history, and possibly the first ever portrait of an American woman in the act of writing.^[6]

Scipio was auctioned in January 1775 as part of anestate sale. The advertised location of the slave auction, near theLiberty Tree, was deplored by the 19th-century abolition movement. In the 1780s, enslaved Massachusettsanssuccessfully sued for freedom which led to a general abolition, but it is unknown if Scipio was ever freed, as his buyer was unrecorded and no record of his whereabouts after 1775 has been located.^[5]

References

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^Scipio Moorhead inBénézit
^Appiah, Kwame A.; Gates Jr., Henry L. (1999).Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. U.S: Basic Civitas Books. p. 1332(?).ISBN 0-465-00071-1.
^Lewis, R.W.B. and Nacy (1999).American Characters. Yale University: Yale University. p. 380.ISBN 0-300-07895-1.
^Patton, Sharon F. (1998).Oxford History of Art: African- American Art. Oxford, New York: Oxford University press. p. 12.ISBN 0-19284213-7.
^^a ^bSlauter, Eric. Looking for Scipio Moorhead : an "African painter" in revolutionary North America inLugo-Ortiz, Agnes (2013).Slave portraiture in the Atlantic world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 9781107004399. p. 89-116
^Shaw, Gwendolyn DuBois (2006).Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century. Phillips Academy: Addison Gallery of American Art. p. 37.ISBN 9780295985718.