The Freedom Soul

            Francis William Edmonds was an American painter of genre subjects. He first exhibited at the New York Academy in 1836, under an assumed name, Sammy the Tailor. In the years just before the Civil War, society's concern with issues surrounding slavery and race found expression in genre paintings or scenes of daily life. Therefore, not only the writers voiced up for the lower class, but also the artists exploded their thoughts for it too. The Flute (the picture above), by Edmonds before 1859, describes a pity scene of the black children. It is exhibited in Amon Carter Museum of American Art, is a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Louis J. Urdahl with assistance from the Mitchell A. Wilder Memorial Fund in 1981.

            This is not a hard painting to see the content in it. People can obviously see a white man’s playing flute for the black boys. The reason the artist made this artwork, to me is because of the empathy he has for the African Americans. In this particular period of time, discrimination happened everywhere in the United States. The image of being close to slaves and considering them as friends is a very rare action. In this picture, people can see a small space, which is a poor house as a background. It brings me a feeling of a secret event. The way the white man sits and plays quietly and the way the black kids see him with grateful look, makes me imagine a peaceful atmosphere. Moreover, the way the white man dresses also show the period of time is between 18^th or 19^th century. This certainly describes the discrimination era of the United States back then. It is not an illegal thing to do but people may judge the white man for making friends with slavery. Therefore, the flute player has to play in a house with a lower sound to hire attention from the neighbors around. Again, I think the reason Edmonds created this artwork is because he wants to show the poor life of African Americans.

            I can see in this picture a combination of so many, if not mistaken, are all of elements of design. The lines appear on the window, the stick behind the boy and also the shade of wall creates a line too. Therefore, the shapes of rectangle are made by lines as we can see are the wood hanging in the middle of the wall, the window, or the tables. By those shapes, forms are appeared. The vases, the hats, the bottles, and buckets are all made from circle shape. The clothes of these characters help us see the texture in this painting. Space is obviously shown by the wall with not many items on it, and we can imagine a small town by the view outside of the window. Value and color are the most noticeable in this artwork because of the lightness and darkness shades. It helps us know the time in day of the picture. Edmond used dark tone color to express the sad content. In the other hand, the color and value bring the audience to a peaceful of this scene to empathy for African Americans. Opposite with elements of design, the artist used not much principles of design in this particular painting. I can only see the movement which is how the characters sit and stand. The picture contains no iconography because the concept shows the meaning itself. Therefore, it is not representational, abstract or nonrepresentational in this artwork neither.

            Discrimination is a good theme for many authors because this circumstance keeps happening all the time. Reading many books about this topic, people can certainly imagine a tough society in the past. After analyzing this painting, we now know that artist also help speak up for African Americans too. I love this work of art. It does not need any professional techniques or show any special skill of the artist but I feel touched when I first saw it. It makes me want to go back to that period and send more love to these poor children.

                                                Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

   

                                                   The Kimbell Art Museum

                                      The Fort Worth Community Arts Center

                                      Amon Carter Museum of American Art