John N. Robinson

John N. Robinson (February 8, 1912 – October 17, 1994) was an African-American artist who lived and worked in Washington, D.C. He made realist paintings showing the people and places of his family home, his neighborhood, and the city in which he lived.

Called "quiet and conscientious" and praised for works of "sincerity and humility," he was particularly noted for portraits that showed his sitters in a way that successfully revealed their individual character.

A critic for Washington Post characterized his paintings as "hymns to the ordinary" and said they were "warmed by gratitude and gentleness."

Robinson was born in Washington, D.C., on February 18, 1912.

Eight years later he and his four siblings were effectively orphaned when their mother died and their father abandoned the family.

Adopted by his maternal grandparents, he attended public schools, but dropped out before completing junior high.

While still in school he began to make small paintings while doing part-time evening work in a nearby automotive service station where his grandfather was a night watchman.

Having seen some of these paintings, the chauffeur of one of the station's clients borrowed a few and showed them to his sister.

She showed them to an acquaintance, James V. Herring, then head of the art department at Howard University, and he arranged for Robinson to study under a Howard art teacher, James A. Porter, in return for light cleaning chores.

Financial need kept Robinson from working with Porter as long was he wished, but, as he later said, "what I learned at Howard under Professors Herring and Porter was the basis of my efforts in art."

After resuming both day and evening jobs, he nonetheless continued to paint, as he later said, whenever and wherever he could, "painting everything from church murals to door decorations."

He made his first mural when he was 17, a depiction of Christ at Gethsemane, at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Anacostia, where his grandparents had moved in 1929.

This commission led to others, all within the African-American neighborhoods of the city.

During the 1930s he obtained full-time employment first in the Civilian Conservation Corps and then as a laborer at the Washington Navy Yard.

In 1935 he found work at St. Elizabeths Hospital, which, like the Navy Yard, lay not far from his home in Anacostia.

In each of these occupations, he painted when not working and, particularly at St. Elizabeths, was able to sell portraits to some of his fellow workers.

Like other African-American artists in segregated Washington, he was unable to find a commercial gallery that would show his work, but, beginning in 1938, he was an eager participant in an annual series of outdoor exhibits sponsored by the Times-Herald newspaper.

At these art fairs he would both sell his paintings and make what he called "minute sketches" of passersby charging thirty-five cents each.

He befriended area artists and made connections that led to part-time work making backgrounds for a photographic portrait studio.

A 1940 painting, Woman Reading a Bible (Maude Jones), shown at left, is considered to be one of Robinson's best portraits.

It was commissioned by a woman who sold newspapers in downtown Washington.

In 1943 a small, nonprofit art gallery opened within a private home near Howard University.

Called the Barnett Aden Gallery, it broke with tradition by showing works by African-American as well as white artists.

In February 1945 Robinson's paintings were included in a group show held there.

Later that year he won an award for his painting, "Mr and Mrs Barton," at the fourth annual Exhibition of Paintings held at Atlanta University.

This painting, shown at right, is a portrait of the artist's grandparents.

Shown at left is a painting Robinson made in 1946 showing the crowd at the fair, held that year in President's Park (now called Lafayette Square).

In 1946, 1947, 1948, and 1952 he again appeared with other artists in Barnett Aden shows.

During the Barnett Aden exhibition held in 1947 the Evening Star reproduced his portrait, "Mother and Child," and its critic wrote, "John Robinson's naturalistic works comprise the most ingratiating group from the lay standpoint. Among them are a speaking likeness of the Barnett Aden Gallery, a clever self-portrait with reflections on the glass, and a sympathetic 'Mother and Child.'" A year later, when the Greater Washington Area Council of the American Veterans' Committee included works by Robinson in its second annual art exhibition, the same Evening Star critic praised his "phenomenal industry, patience and sharp-focus vision," but said, regarding his painting showing the outdoor art fair that he needed to learn to simplify.

Robinson did not court publicity and his financial success was limited by his reluctance to participate in the local art scene through the social functions that brought artists together with collectors and other prospective buyers.

He was quoted as having said, "I cannot, I feel, have any regrets about my accomplishments. What comes from art will just come. I don’t feel any need to strive."

When his paintings began to command high prices he would still sell them for less, saying that a lot of people who admired his work simply could not afford the going rate.

Partly for this reason, his paintings began to sell for much greater sums after his death than they had during his life.

In 1994 Robinson said he invited her to his house but after she had sat for him several Sundays, she disappeared and he never saw her again.

In an obituary, the Washington Post's Paul Richard characterized Robinson's paintings as "hymns to the ordinary."

In a 2004 auction, one painting brought $9,500 and another sold for $10,000 after a bidding war that set collectors against dealers.

Robinson was a realist who painted the people and places of his family home, his neighborhood, and the city in which he lived.

Called "quiet and conscientious" and using an approach that was said to be founded on "sincerity and humility," he painted his sitters in a way that revealed their individual character.

His work shows no resentment at the injustices he endured through loss of his parents while young and a life marked by poverty and the scourges of then-prevailing racial prejudice, but rather, as one critic said, brought "back the days of traditional family life, love, and happiness."

Critics praised his technique but suggested that he tried to put too much detail into some of his work and in other cases he verged perilously close to sentimentality.