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| Street Scene, Algiers by Richard Brown Black |
A painting of glowing mastery and golden beauty hangs in the genealogy room of the Greenfield Public Library. It is an street scene of North Africa, in a late orientalist style that borders on modernism. The vaguely abstract manner of its rendering is evocative of the mystery of its subject matter of faraway daily life. The picture appears created with a level of skill seen by masters of the French genre, Eugene Delacroix and Jean-Leon Gerome. It was a genre that coincided with the more well-known romantic movement that supplanted the neoclassical period dominated by Jacques-Louis David and Jean August Dominique Ingres.
European interest in the 'Orient,' as Egypt and Northern Africa were called at the time, was inspired and began shortly after Napoleon's Egyptian escapades prior to his time as emperor. It would continue throughout the 19th Century.
All that being said, it seems strange to see such an exotic piece hanging outside a museum in a library in the middle of Indiana. Even if it shares space with artworks of or by such local luminaries as painter Will Vawter and poet James Whitcomb Riley.
The artwork hangs in a prominent spot of the history room, treasured under glass, within a sturdy golden frame with an engraved plate reading Street Scene, Algiers, Richard Brown Black, 1988 – 1915.
Who Was Richard Brown Black?
The first mention of Greenfield, Indiana native Richard Brown Black in Indiana newspapers is the June 24, 1909, Cambridge City Tribune. His story starts with the news as follows,
“Richard Black, of Greenfield, a talented and successful young artist, who has spent several years abroad in the study of his profession, is here the guest of his relatives, Mr. and Mrs. M. L. Bowmaster.”
The next year, the July 3, 1910, Muncie Star reports, amid a column containing various horrific tragedies reported around the state, a bit of good news from Greenfield,
“Richard Black, whose home is in this city, and who is studying art in Paris, has had the sketch, An Old Fashioned Fireplace accepted for a place in the Paris salon.”
A few years later, in an article titled 'Recognition as Painter' in the April 1, 1914, Indianapolis News, Black's burgeoning art career is reported,
“Richard Black...who for some years has been an art student in Paris, is receiving substantial recognition as a painter. He has just sold two canvases exhibited in this year's orientalist salon, one to the French government and one to Georges Leggeus, the well-known French art connoisseur...Mr. Black is only twenty-five years old, and his success is regarded as remarkable. Until recently he had given most of his time and talent to etching.”
His participation in the prestigious annual French exhibition is reported in the April 12, 1914, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette,
“Paris, April 11. – Richard Black, of Indiana, is among the American artists, who have exhibits in the national salon of fine arts, which opens (in Paris, April 12, 1914).”
A year later, Black exhibited in the 8th Annual Indiana Artists show at the Herron Art Institute. His work was reviewed by the art writer, Rena Tucker Kohlmann, in The Indianapolis News, March 13, 1915,
“Among the younger artists in the state, the work of Richard Black, of Greenfield, is noticeably good. His Street in Algiers is excellent, and his etchings, Grain Market, Lousse and In the Souks – Tunis are interesting notes...”
The Pride of Greenfield.
A palpable city pride for the accomplishment of the young artist is observed in the reporting of the Herron exhibition by the Greenfield Republican, April 1, 1915,
“Those of our citizens who have visited the exhibition of the works of Indiana artists at the Herron Art Institute, at Indianapolis, have been especially interested in the three pictures by Richard Black, of this city. Mr. Black, who has lived abroad many years, is at present ill at his home on Douglas street.
Two of the pictures are etchings of unusual merit, and were in the 1914 salon des Beaux Arts of Paris. The one oil painting is of a distinctive character – a harmonious representation of a street scene in Algiers. This painting was first exhibited in the 1913 salon in Paris and in 1914 it was selected by the Paris jury of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to represent the Paris group of American painters, and was well hung in the Pennsylvania exhibit.
Mr. Black's pictures show that he is a thoroughly equipped artist. In his works, we see picturesque composition, good drawing, exquisite harmony of low-keyed color, and fine technique. Those who have been fortunate enough to see Mr. Black's pictures know how justly proud Greenfield will be of her talented young artist.”
Sadly, within days, and during the run of the exhibition, Richard Brown Black would pass away at his family home in Greenfield, as reported in the April 5, 1915, Greenfield Republican,
“Richard Black, age 26 years, died at 4 o'clock Wednesday morning at the Black home on North Spring street...of tuberculosis, following a long illness. The deceased was born in Greenfield, June 3, 1889, the son of Richard A. and Ione Black. His father, who was a prominent attorney, died in 1900, and a few years later the widow and her children went to Europe where the children were educated. They lived abroad about twelve years.
For the past five years Richard A.(sic) Black was a student of art...He spent two years in Africa and painted many views of northern Africa.
He returned to his home in this city last summer and had been sick since that time. While there had been but little if any hope for his recovery, still his death at this time was unexpected, as he had seemed to be better, especially on Tuesday, and his brother, Thomas, who had been here several days, left at 7 o'clock Tuesday evening for Columbia University, where he is a student. The deceased leaves the mother, one brother, Thomas, and two sisters, Nelle(sic?) Black...and Mrs. Kelsey Flower...”
The death was also reported April 17, 1915, by The Indianapolis News,
“Greenfield, Ind., April 7. – Richard B. Black, age twenty-seven, an artist of note, died today at the home of his mother, Mrs. Ione Black, in this city.
Two of his pictures were sold to the French government a year ago, and three are now on exhibition at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis...
Mr. Black was in northern Africa two years, and painted many scenes there.
Mr. Black was educated in Germany and Paris, where he spent twelve years. He returned to this city last summer, afflicted with tuberculosis. He was the son of Richard A. Black and was unmarried...”
The Algiers painting's eventual location in the library is explained in a September 2, 1915 article in the Greenfield Republican,
“An oil painting, the work of the late Richard Brown Black, has been hung in the public library. Mr. Black was born in Greenfield, but spent most of his life in study abroad. He was an artist of rare ability, and had he lived he would have achieved a high place among American artists. His death, which occurred last spring, is greatly to be lamented. The picture which hangs in the library is a street scene in Algiers....
Mr. Black gave the picture to Miss Lizzie Harris, of this city. Because of his esteem for his native city and a desire that his work may be seen and appreciated by the people, Miss Harris has hung it in the library as a memorial to him.”
Although it is not clear from the newspaper articles, one stating an age of 26 years and one 27. If Mr. Black had been born in June 1889 and died in April 1915, he would have been 25.
Posthumous Honor and Family Tragedy.
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| Ione Brown Black of Greenfield, Indiana, mother of Richard Brown Black |
Almost a decade later, on August 10, 1922, the Greenfield Republican reported an update regarding the the work of the fallen artist,
“Word has been received here from Mrs. Ione Black, who has made her home for several years in the country around the Mediterranean Sea, that a painting by her son, the late Richard Black, has been given recognition by the French government and is to hang in one of the government buildings until twenty years from the date of Mr. Black's death, when it is to be transferred to the chambers of the Louvre, where it will hang among the works of the greatest artists of Europe and of the world...
One of his best paintings, a North African landscape subject, and very similar to the one honored by the French government, hangs in the local public library, a gift from the family...(the Greenfield library painting) has opportunity to become one of the most highly regarded and prized possessions of the city.”
In a horrifying turn of events, within a few years, Richard Black's sister Nellie, along with her two young children, would be murdered by her husband, the children's father, in New Orleans. Reported in the May 16, 1925, Indianapolis News,
“Nellie Black Peckham, who with her two small children, was killed in New Orleans Friday by Professor George W. Peckham, her husband, was the daughter of Alexander and Ione Black of this city. Mr. Black, for many years a prominent attorney of Hancock county, was killed twenty years ago in Indianapolis when he struck a telephone pole while stepping from a moving interurban car.
Mrs. (Black) Peckham, her two children and (Mr.) Peckham were found at the Peckham home in New Orleans, dead of bullet wounds. The coroner decided it was a triple murder and a suicide case. Peckham is said to have been deranged.”
This horrific postscript serves to illustrate the level of tragedy the Black family had suffered for a period of years. But also, adds mystery to the whereabouts of certain artworks by Richard Brown Black. The Greenfield Daily Reporter ran a similar article, also on May 16, 1925, about the New Orleans killings, and ended with this note,
“While last in Greenfield Mrs. Peckham removed to her home in the South some of the pictures by her brother.”
Additional Biographical Details.
On the occasion of his posthumous participation in a three person art exhibit in 1928 in Richmond, Indiana, additional biographic details of Richard Brown Black are learned. The March 3, 1928, Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram reported,
“An exhibition of oil paintings, watercolors and etchings, the works of Miss Olive Rush of Santa Fe, N. Mex., R.B. Gruelle, one of Indiana's early Hoosier Group, and Richard Brown Black, a young artist who painted during the early part of the 20th century, will be open to the public ...in the art galleries of Morton high school...
Although just a very young painter when he died, Richard Brown Black, whose collection of oil paintings, etchings and water colors, mostly of foreign subjects, are a part the exhibition...
His oils show his profound feeling for exquisite color harmony. His choice of subject is varied and usually interesting. A delightful crispness prevails in his water colors, many of them preliminary sketches for his oil paintings.
Black was born in Greenfield, Ind. On June 3, 1888. All his art education was obtained in France. In 1903, at the age of 15 he entered the Beaux Arts of Avignon, and remained there for two years. The following year, 1905-1906, he traveled through Spain, Northern Africa and Italy. It was in Rome, in 1906, that he learned to etch. During the year 1906-1907, he was a pupil of Jean-Paul Laurens at the Academie Julien in Paris. After a stay of two years in the United States, he returned to Paris and was admitted at the (Fernand) Cormon studio in the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts (1909).
Until that time, he had worked only in drawing (charcoal, pencil, pen and ink), water color and etching; it was Cormon who insisted that he had the eye and the manner of an oil painter. The great French master was proud of his 'find,' for he soon considered his American pupil as one, if not the most, promising in his studio.
After 1911, his health obliged him to live most of the time in Southern France and Northern Africa, where the majority of his work was done.
Each time he returned to Paris, he showed all the work he done to Cormon, and the master invariably had nothing but praise. On one occasion, he paid the American artist a compliment that probably was unique to the painter's career.
'Black,' he said, 'your conception of painting is altogether different from mine, but if I were young, I don't know but what I'd choose yours.'”
A week later on March 10, the same newspaper provided a more detailed review of the show,
“Along the east wall and on panels on the north and south walls are hung the 43 works of art by Richard Black, which is only a small number compared to the many pieces of work he produced before reaching the age of 25 years. One marvels at the quality of painting beautiful warm color harmonies and fine drawing displayed by so young an artist. It is a manifestation of his genius and of what he probably would have achieved had he lived longer.
Upon showing his likeness and aptness in making pictures while a very young boy, Mr. Black's mother became thoroughly interested and consequently, gave him all opportunities and advantages of the best art schools and masters of painting in France. He was a consistent and rapid worker, always well liked by his associates and made great progress in his art expression.
Practically all the paintings and etchings of R. B. Black are in New York, and with two exceptions, the present exhibit contains only work that was left in his Greenfield studio...(the exceptions) The Port of Algiers...was in the Salon des Orientalistes of 1914. Later it was informally accepted by the late Leonce Benedite, curator of the Luxembourgh museum, to be added to the American School in the gallery. His Street in Algiers...was in the Paris Salon of 1913...”
A complete and invaluably list of the Richard Black works in the exhibition is included in the March 24, 1928 coverage of the exhibit in The Indianapolis Star. Of particular note are the oil paintings, reported in the art column as follows; Portrait, Gaby, Louise, Vaison - France, Fruit Merchant – Tunis, Constantine, Port of Algiers and Street in Algiers (the Greenfield library painting).
Although his life was cut short by illness and death, the sublime vision of Richard Brown Black lives on, in a painting of stunning beauty in central Indiana. He, and his painting, the color of perpetual sun.
Mark Diekhoff, November 2025
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