A. E. Backus and the Highwaymen

Many people confuse the Highwaymen, the group of African-American artists, with A. E. "Bean" Backus. Backus was not part of the Highwaymen, but he is known for inspiring that Florida group of painters via Alfred Hair, the only person in the Highwaymen group who was a Backus student. Alfred Hair was introduced to Backus by Hair’s high school teacher because of his innate artistic talent. Backus took Al Hair under his wing to try to show him how to paint the rich Florida landscape in which Backus was so adept. Al Hair taught the other members of the group, not Backus.

    Hair had an intense style, and was responsible for organizing the group of painters. He had the idea of producing quickly painted works for sale in order to improve his and his friends’ lives. Another member, Harold Newton, was close to Backus in style.  Unfortunately, Hair was killed by an envious individual in a barroom in 1970.

   The term "Highwaymen" was invented years later to describe the group because they piled their paintings into their cars, sometimes when the paint was still wet, and sold them door to door from Fort Pierce up as far as Georgia and down to Miami at a fraction of a price that Backus could command.

  Although the Highwaymen painted the same scenes as Backus, they were copyists, and their paintings, dramatic in color and intensity, do not possess the same quality as in paintings by Backus. Knowing they could never match the fineness of his art, they chose to make up for that fact by painting as many works as they possibly could in the shortest amount of time.

           -Deborah C. Pollack

A. E. Backus "Fire Sky"