WILMINGTON, Del. – From outside the deserted Wilmington building, passersby would have no idea that an authentic, nearly 70-year-old Aaron Douglas painting dominates the living room inside.
Douglas, the forefather of African-American art and a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, painted the mural in the home of Dr. William Goens in 1942.
The scene, with its shades of yellow, brown, blue and red, depicts Haitian women going to market, a man working in a field, foliage and an iconographic African sculpture. It is currently undergoing restoration efforts by Dr. Joyce Stoner and five student conservationists.
Stoner, a professor with the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, said the piece is “a wonderful example of Douglas’ work. It has his signature color palette and the use of the concentric circles.”
“That it exists in Wilmington is really incredible,” said Danielle Rice, director of the Delaware Art Museum, who calls the mural “an absolutely wonderful monument to African-American art history and a significant work of art in its own right.”
Haiti as a subject was of particular interest to Black artists at the time, because of the Haitian Revolution.
“Haiti was seen as the first independent Black nation in the Western Hemisphere, and that a nation of former slaves became free was a very important subject to African-American artists,” said Dr. Camara Holloway, a University of Delaware art history professor.
