the death of Charles. In Monroe, John Dean found considerable success working as a housepainter and a carpenter. This success allowed him to support his family and educate his children. During their childhood, Robert and his four brothers apprenticed in the family trades of house painting and carpentry. While Robert's brothers achieved modest success as housepainters, Robert emerged as the most talented of his siblings in his apprenticeships. In 1838, Robert established a painting business with partner John Gamblin. Robert and his partner frequently advertised their services in local publications, like the Monroe Gazette. However, in 1839, Robert suspended the business in order to pursue his ambition to work as a portrait painter. In 1840, nineteen-year-old Duncanson left Monroe and moved to Mount Pleasant, Ohio, a town north of Cincinnati later known as Mount Healthy, to begin his career in fine arts. Duncanson lived in Mt. Healthy with the Reuben Graham family who were also descendants of Virginian slaves. The community of Mt. Healthy, like Cincinnati, had a substantial free black population. In the nineteenth century, Cincinnati was considered a southern' town on free soil”. Cincinnati was a fast-growing city—the city’s population grew from 43,000 to 115,000 between 1840 and 1850. In particular, Cincinnati attracted many freed or escape slaves in search of a new community. The city hosted one of the largest African-American communities in the U.S. Upon Duncanson’s arrival, the African-American population of the city was approximately 3,000. Many of these 3,000 African-Americans living in Cincinnati were previously enslaved. By 1870, the city had 5,900 African-American residents, with an overall population of 216,000. Duncanson was primarily attracted to Cincinnati for its strong arts community. In the 19th century, Cincinnati was referred to as "the Athens of the West". It was also referred to as the "emporium of the West" by its free black population who had much greater access to opportunities of advancement there than in other parts of antebellum America. During the 19th century, Cincinnati and the American west became well known for its landscape artists, including William Louis Sonntag, Godfrey Frankenstein, T. Worthington Whittredge, and Duncanson himself. Career Itinerant portrait painting Robert Seldon Duncanson had no formal art education, and thus had to teach himself by copying prints, copying engravings of European works, sketching from nature, and painting portraits. In the 1840s, Duncanson worked primarily as an itinerant portrait painter, like many African-American artists at the