William E. Scott
*William E. Scott was born on this date in 1884. He was a Black artist.
William Edouard Scott was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Edward and Caroline Scott (née Russell). After graduating from Manual Training High School in 1903, Scott spent a year studying drawing under Otto Stark. In 1904, he moved to Chicago and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he won the Frederick Mangus Brand Prize for pictorial composition. While in Chicago, he painted murals around the city, including one titled Commerce.
However, he learned much of his palette and impressionist technique during his travels to France. While abroad, he was mentored by Henry O. Tanner. Training in Paris, Scott built a reputation for himself more easily than his race would have allowed in America. Perhaps because of this, he seemed more conservative in his portrayals of the Harlem Renaissance than others and sometimes painted scenes that had nothing to do with race. During 1910–14, he occasionally visited his former teacher at Frances Etaples art colony, where he painted local scenes such as the atmospheric Rainy Night at Étaples and others under Tanner's influence.
After completing his formal education, Scott received a Rosenwald Foundation grant and traveled to Haiti to paint those who had "maintained their African heritage." Later, he traveled to Alabama to study Blacks in different communities in the South. By refusing to paint Blacks as slaves and laborers, Scott hoped to "reverse the stereotypical perceptions of African Americans and eventually foster an understanding among the races." When he returned to Chicago, Scott continued with that goal as he portrayed "Blacks on canvas in positions of prominence doing noble deeds" throughout the portraits and murals he created for the rest of his life.
Scott painted several prominent and historically important murals at the Wabash YMCA in Chicago's Bronzeville district. These murals fell into extremely critical condition with the underfunding of the Wabash YMCA. However, when The Renaissance Collaborative restored the Y, the murals were cleaned extensively and restored. They are now considered a part of a Historic Landmark. However, just as Scott's artistic style remained traditional and based on the impressionist techniques he had initially learned, his approach to race remained somewhat conservative until he died in Chicago on May 15, 1964.
