Edward L. Loper Sr

Van Buren Street Bridge

Circa 2000

A master of light and color, Edward L. Loper Sr. was an African-American artist from Wilmington, Delaware, who went on to become one of the most celebrated cultural figures in his home state.

Loper was not just a painter; he was also a dedicated teacher who worked hard to help his students see the world around them with fresh eyes. When he passed away in 2011, Delaware Today wrote: “Few local painters have achieved his level of recognition and influence, here and beyond, or have been as beloved by so many students.”

Loper did not have a formal art education. He had an insatiable appetite for learning about art, and his richly hued, expressive paintings, which include modernist depictions of landscapes, Cubist cityscapes and human figures, reveal his deep understanding of works by masters like Picasso, Cézanne and El Greco. Loper took frequent train rides to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, studied the work of painters Andrew Wyeth and Howard Pyle at the Wilmington Public Library and took courses under author and educator Violette de Mazia at the Barnes Foundation.

His first job as an artist was at the Works Progress Administration Art Project, a New Deal program that saw Loper painting depictions of furniture and toys for a large archive of folk art. In 1937, the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts (now the Delaware Art Museum) accepted one of Loper’s paintings, making him the first African-American artist in its collection.

“Once you learn to see as an artist, the world will never look the same again,” he said in Edward Loper: Prophet of Color, a 1999 award-winning documentary about his life. Despite his humble beginnings, Loper’s work is now in the permanent collections of eminent institutions like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Howard University Gallery of Art. He also taught at the Allied Kid Company, Delaware Art Museum, Lincoln University and the Jewish Community Center in Delaware.

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