Eugene Alexander Burkes Sold at Auction Prices

Eugene Alexander Burkes John Brown and Frederick Douglass in Conference

Eugene Alexander Burkes (b. 1880) John Brown and Frederick Douglass in Conference, 1931 oil on canvas signed and dated 38 x 30 inches framed Eugene Burkes studied at the Newark School of Fine and Applied Arts where he was trained as a composer and a painter.  He exhibited in 1931 and 1933 with the Harmon Foundation and the Newark Art Club and his work is in the collection of the Oakland Museum of Art.   John Brown and Frederick Douglass in Conference, is listed as a known work by the artist in Afro-American Artists, A Bio-Bibliographical Directory, Theresa Dickason Cedarholm, 1973.  This work is more of a sentimental, fanciful rendition of an eventual outcome than a historically accurate depiction of an event.  While the three subjects of the work: Brown, Douglass and Lincoln were all anti-slavery, they were not in agreement about how to achieve the desired result.  Brown was a militant extremist, self-proclaiming his duty to God was to destroy slavery after his friend, Elijah Lovejoy was killed in 1837.  Douglass walked the fence of reformer and co-conspirator, playing a role in the Underground Railroad and going as far as delivering funds to Brown immediately before his Harper’s Ferry raid, while falling short of being willing to participate in the violent event.  Lincoln was in the midst of campaigning for the newly formed Republican Party and clearly anti-slavery, but his significant role would come after Brown’s death. In 1847, after speaking at the Free Church, Douglass spent a night speaking with Brown, after which he wrote, “From this night spent with John Brown in Springfield, Mass. 1847 while I continued to write and speak against slavery, I became all the same less hopeful for its peaceful abolition. My utterances became more and more tinged by the color of this man’s strong impressions.” Brown spent a month at Douglass’s home in Rochester in January of 1858, presumably the “setting” of this work.  Lincoln, would soon win the candidacy for US Senate (June, 1858).  Douglass had met with Brown once again shortly before the raid on Harper’s Ferry at a farm quarry and delivered $10 from abolitionists, Rev. James and Elizabeth Gloucester.  Douglass believed Brown’s plan to raid the federal arsenal was doomed to fail and he (Brown) would not make it out alive.  Brown tried to convince Douglass to bring support and meet him in Harper’s Ferry, but Douglass refused.  Brown was ultimately caught and hung for “treason, murder, and inciting slave insurrection” on December 2, 1859.  Correspondences between the two men were confiscated upon Brown’s capture, and subsequently led Douglass to flee to England shortly after the failed raid, fearing he would be accused of conspiring in the raid.