William Edouard Scott

Artist and portrait painter, William Edouard Scott, 1925

Courtesy of New York Public Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

William Edouard Scott was a Black artist, born and raised in Indianapolis. He attended Emmerich Manual High School, graduating in 1903. He worked as an assistant high school art teacher at Manual while also under Otto Stark’s tutelage.

Scott went on to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (from 1904-1909) where he continued to develop his artistic style. He completed several murals in Chicago area schools, which are now considered the earliest public works depicting Black subjects. He continued to devote his skills as an artist to documenting Black experiences.

After Chicago, Stark helped Scott win a scholarship abroad in Paris (from 1909-1914) to further his art education. There he received acclaim for his work La Pauvre Voisine (The Poor Neighbor). He returned to the U.S. for a short period. Forsyth selected Scott to participate in the City Hospital mural project. He, however, soon made his way back to France to document the experiences of African American soldiers during World War I.

Traveling (Lead Kindly Light), William Edouard Scott, 1918

Courtesy of Huntington Museum of Art, via Google Arts and Culture
 

Scott received the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to study in Haiti in 1931. While there, he completed over 100 works. Many depicted Haitians engaged in various types of labor.

When he returned to the U.S., he painted for the Federal Art Project, creating public murals for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 10 years later became the only Black artist chosen to create a mural for the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington D.C.

Scott created over 75 murals celebrating Black history and culture throughout the Midwest and D.C. areas. He also worked with several members of the Hoosier Group (Steele, Stark, and Forsyth) to create murals at City Hospital (now Eskenazi).