BGuthrie Photos: DC -- U.S. Capitol (interior) -- Rotunda

DC -- U.S. Capitol (interior) -- Rotunda:

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[15] CAPROT_021223_45.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[16] CAPROT_021223_47.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[17] CAPROT_021223_50.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?) $Abraham Lincoln Statue The Basics Artist: Vinnie Ream Materials: Marble, Red Granite Year: 1871 Location: Capitol Rotunda The statue of President Abraham Lincoln depicts him with a serious, contemplative expression. Sculpted by the first female artist commissioned to create a work of art for the United States government. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. His farming family moved frequently, settling in Indiana and then Illinois. Lincoln had little formal education, but he borrowed and read books wherever they lived. In young adulthood he worked as a laborer, ferryman, storekeeper, surveyor, Illinois state legislator, and circuit-court lawyer. In 1842 he married Mary Todd; the couple had four children, of whom only one lived to adulthood. Lincoln was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1846 but served only one term before resuming his law practice. In 1854, however, Congressional action undermining the antislavery cause drew him back to politics. After opposing pro-slavery candidates for the Senate, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for president. He won the election in 1860, but by the time he assumed office in March 1861 seven states in the South had seceded from the Union. The Congress and his own fractious cabinet proved a formidable challenge to the new president's administrative abilities. However, his political skills and his unpretentious yet eloquent way of speaking won him critical support and loyalty. His conviction that the Union must be restored never faltered, and he initially managed the conduct of the war personally. Disappointed in the generals who headed the military effort, he at last found in Ulysses S. Grant a capable and determined officer to whom he could entrust overall command. A milestone of his presidency was his issuance on January 1, 1863, of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in states still in rebellion were free. Lincoln was reelected in 1864, in large part because the tide of the war had turned in favor of the Union. By this time he had become committed not only to restoring the Union and emancipation but also to extending civil rights and the vote to freed slaves. Anticipating the Confederate surrender, he intended that the reconstruction of the South be generous rather than vindictive, despite congressional preference for harsher action. However, he was never to see his goal accomplished. On April 14, 1865, he was shot by Southern partisan actor John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., and he died the following day. Lincoln's body lay in state on the catafalque in the Capitol Rotunda and was taken to Springfield, Illinois, for burial in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The Statue The statue of President Abraham Lincoln in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol depicts him with a serious, contemplative expression. He looks downward at his extended right hand, which holds the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wears a bow tie, a single-breasted vest and the double-breasted frock coat that he wore to Ford's Theater on the night of his assassination. A long, flowing cloak is draped over his right shoulder and arm, clasped in his left hand. His right leg is slightly bent, and the toe of his right boot projects beyond the front of the self-base. The name of the sculptor, Vinnie Ream, is inscribed on the side of the self-base. The name "ABRAHAM LINCOLN" is carved in relief on the front of the marble pedestal. The red granite base, on which the pedestal stands, was added in 1877. The Sculptor In 1866, at the age of 18, Vinnie Ream was selected by the U.S. Congress to sculpt a memorial statue of President Abraham Lincoln. This made her the first female artist commissioned to create a work of art for the United States government. Ream had previously shown her ability to depict the president in a bust that she created from life in Washington. Her selection, however, was accompanied by controversy because she was young, female, and had friendships with members of Congress. Despite the objections, Ream was given the commission and the statue of Lincoln was unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda in 1871. Ream would later create sculptures for the National Statuary Hall Collection. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/abraham-lincoln-statue$
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CAPROT_021223_13.JPG: Surrender of General Burgoyne One of four revolutionary period scenes in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Trumbull Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1826 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda The event shown in this painting is the surrender of British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York on October 17, 1777. Burgoyne's surrender followed battles with American General Horatio Gates near Saratoga in September and October 1777. With the British losing men and defenses during both engagements, Burgoyne retreated with a weakened army to Saratoga, where he surrendered to General Gates. This turning point in the American Revolution prevented the British from dividing New England from the rest of the colonies, and it was the deciding factor in bringing active French support to the American cause. This painting depicts General Burgoyne prepared to surrender his sword to General Gates. Gates, showing respect for Burgoyne, refuses to take the sword and instead offers hospitality by directing Burgoyne to the tent to take refreshment; the American flag flies in the wind at the top of the tent. American officers gather at the sides to witness the event; their varied dress reflects their different units. In the center of the painting, and extending into the background, is Burgoyne's army along with its German reinforcements. They were directed to the camp by American Colonel Lewis, Quartermaster-General, who rides on horseback in the far distance. The scene suggests peace rather than combat or hostility: beneath blue sky and white clouds, officers wear their dress uniforms, weapons are sheathed or slung, and cannons stand silent. Burgoyne's surrender was among the subjects John Trumbull selected for a series of history paintings when he began to "meditate seriously the subjects of national history, of events of the Revolution," in 1785. In September of that year, Trumbull wrote his brother that he was thinking of scenes related to battles of Bunker’s Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown. In 1791, he sketched a landscape study for the surrender site at Saratoga. In creating the painting for the Capitol, he included the same large tree in the left foreground and many other topographical features but added more trees and autumnal leaves. Trumbull based most of the figures on portraits he painted from life in the early 1790s. The Surrender of General Burgoyne was completed in December 1821 and was exhibited in New York City from January to March of the following year. Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. At the time, Trumbull also repaired damage to the right foot of Colonel Daniel Morgan (dressed in white and standing at the head of the officers gathered at the tent), which was cut out with a sharp instrument, most likely a penknife. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. Between 1822 and 1832, Trumbull created a smaller version of this painting that is now part of the collection of Yale University Art Gallery. The painting in the Capitol and the later version are similar in composition but differ in details. In the later version Trumbull made changes to the facial features and expressions of figures, the direction the flag blows, and the topography of the landscape. It was Trumbull’s version for the U.S. Capitol that appeared on a $1.00 stamp in 1994. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/surrender-general-burgoyne
2. CAPROT_021223_21.JPG: Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto One of four scenes of early exploration in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: William H. Powell Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1855 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda William Henry Powell's dramatic and brilliantly colored canvas was the last of the eight large historical paintings in the Rotunda commissioned by the Congress. It shows Spanish conquistador and explorer Hernando De Soto (1500–1542), riding a white horse and dressed in Renaissance finery, arriving at the Mississippi River at a point below Natchez on May 8, 1541. De Soto was the first European documented to have seen the river. As De Soto and his troops approach, the Native Americans watch warily but quietly before their tepees, and a chief holds out the pipe of peace. The central area of the painting is filled with light and color, set off in dramatic relief by the foreground figures in shadow, and the dark forest at the left contrasts strongly with the bright sky on the right. In the foreground, weapons, armor, artillerymen moving a cannon, and a soldier wrapping a wounded leg suggest the attack by Indians that took place the day before. To the right, a monk prays as men set a newly constructed crucifix in the ground. Above this group and fading to the horizon is the Mississippi River, dotted with native canoes, small islands, and a tree being borne downstream; the lightly forested opposite bank is visible along the skyline. Powell based his scene on published accounts and histories, including Theodore Irving’s 1835 The Conquest of Florida by Hernando de Soto. A year later, after De Soto died of a fever, his body was buried in the river, as shown in Constantino Brumidi's frescoed Frieze of American History above the painting. Engravings of Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto have appeared on the reverse of two United States bank notes: a $10 note in the 1860s and a $500 note in the 1918 series. The painting has undergone various cleaning, revarnishing, repair and restoration treatments since its installation. In 1982 the painting was lined to an aluminum panel to help it resist the effects of changes in temperature and humidity. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. The Artist American painter William Henry Powell (1823–1879) was the last artist commissioned by the Congress to create a painting for the Capitol Rotunda. He replaced Henry Inman, his former teacher, who was commissioned to fill one of the frames in the Rotunda, but who died in 1846 before completing his painting showing Daniel Boone emigrating to Kentucky. Powell, who chose a different subject, worked on the painting in Paris from 1848 to 1853, basing the Spaniards’ costumes and equipment on specimens in the Museum of Artillery. He had a color lithograph made of the painting and exhibited the canvas in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; and New York City before bringing it to Washington, D.C. Powell was born in New York City on February 14, 1823, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, from infancy. His youthful interest in art was encouraged by a local philanthropist, and he received instruction. At the age of seventeen he returned to New York, where he became a pupil of Henry Inman, and he later studied art in Italy for three years. Initially recognized for his portraits, he moved into the field of history painting, which led to his work for the Rotunda. The success of Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto led the Ohio legislature to commission him to paint The Battle of Lake Erie (1873), a scene of Commodore Perry’s famous victory. This work, still displayed in the Ohio Statehouse, prompted the Congress to commission a larger version, which hangs in the east Senate Grand Staircase in the Capitol. Powell’s other history paintings include The Siege of Vera Cruz, The Landing of the Pilgrims and Washington at Valley Forge. His portraits include depictions of Washington Irving, Peter Stuyvesant, and General George B. McClellan. He died in New York on October 6, 1879. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/discovery-mississippi-de-soto
3. CAPROT_021223_23.JPG: Landing of Columbus One of four scenes of early exploration in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Vanderlyn Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1847 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda This painting depicts Christopher Columbus and members of his crew on a beach in the West Indies, newly landed from his flagship Santa Maria on October 12, 1492. The island landing was the first landfall of their expedition to find a westward route from Europe to China, Japan and perhaps unknown lands. American neoclassicist painter John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) was commissioned by Congress in June 1836 to paint the Landing of Columbus for the Capitol Rotunda. It was installed in the Rotunda by early January 1847. In this painting, Christopher Columbus and members of his crew are shown on a beach in the West Indies, the first landfall of their expedition to find a westward route from Europe to China, Japan and perhaps unknown lands. On October 12, 1492, they reached this island, which the natives called Guanahani and Columbus named San Salvador. The setting of the painting is a narrow beach at the edge of a wooded bay or inlet. Columbus, newly landed from his flagship Santa Maria, looks upward as if in reverent gratitude for the safe conclusion of his long voyage. With his left hand he raises the royal banner of Aragon and Castile, claiming the land for his Spanish patrons, and with his right he points his sword at the earth. He stands bareheaded, with his feathered hat at his feet, in an expression of humility. The other Europeans grouped near Columbus represent various classes of society. Behind Columbus and to his right, the captains of the ships Ni�a and Pinta carry the banner of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and a friar holds up a metal cross. To his left, a sailor kneels, gazing upward, and a soldier looks warily into the woods, where native West Indians watch the visitors from behind a tree. Farther behind Columbus, a cabin boy kneels and a mutineer bows in a penitant attitude. Throughout the central group soldiers carry spears, and the inspector of armament shoulders a musket. At the left side of the painting, more crew members land a small boat as their comrades display a range of reactions, some seeming jubilant at reaching the shore and others eagerly seeking to pluck gold from the sand. In the foreground of the scene, a fallen tree and spiky, broad-leafed plants suggest that a new and unknown world begins only a few paces from the explorers’ feet. At the right edge of the painting, the natives blend into the forest of tall deciduous trees. Palm trees can be seen near the water’s edge in the middle distance and along the top of the hill at the horizon. Out on the ocean lie the expedition’s three ships, silhouetted against a rising sun. The painting has undergone various cleaning, revarnishing, relining, repair, and restoration treatments over a dozen times since its installation. In 1982 the painting was attached to an aluminum panel to help it resist the effects of changes in temperature and humidity. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. The Artist American neoclassicist painter John Vanderlyn (1775–1852) was commissioned by Congress in June 1836 to paint the Landing of Columbus for the Capitol Rotunda. He worked on this canvas at his studio in Paris with the help of assistants. Upon its completion in the late summer of 1846 he reportedly hoped to exhibit the painting in various principal cities, but by October 3 he had arrived with it in New York, and it was installed in the Rotunda by early January 1847. This painting may be Vanderlyn’s most widely distributed work. In 1869 it appeared on a 15-cent stamp (which, with a brown frame and blue center vignette, was the first bi-color stamp issued by the United States), and in 1893 it was used on a 2-cent stamp among the nation’s first commemorative stamps, the Columbian Exposition Issue. It also appeared on the reverse of a 5-dollar bank note issued in the 1870s. John Vanderlyn was born at Kingston, New York, on October 18, 1775. He studied under renowned portrait artist Gilbert Stuart and became a proteg� of Aaron Burr, who in 1796 sent him for five years’ study in Paris—making him the first American painter to study there rather than in England. Returning to the United States in 1801, he painted portraits and landscapes. Two years later he traveled back to Europe and painted in England, Rome, and Paris, where his painting Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage was awarded a gold medal. In 1815 he resumed his work in America, exhibiting panoramas and painting portraits. His subjects were chiefly prominent Americans, including Robert R. Livingston, James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, George Clinton, Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor; his 1834 full-length portrait of George Washington (after Gilbert Stuart) is displayed in the Hall of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Capitol. Landing of Columbus would be the last major work of his career, which fell into decline. He died in poverty in Kingston on September 23, 1852. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/landing-columbus
4. CAPROT_021223_26.JPG: Embarkation of the Pilgrims One of four scenes of early exploration in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: Robert W. Weir Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1843 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda This painting depicts the Pilgrims on the deck of the ship Speedwell on July 22, 1620, before they departed from Delfs Haven, Holland, for North America, where they sought religious freedom. They first sailed to Southampton, England, to join the Mayflower, which was also making the voyage. After leaks forced the Speedwell to make additional stops in Dartmouth and then Plymouth, its passengers boarded the Mayflower. Five months later the Pilgrims settled the Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts. The group appears solemn and contemplative of what they are about to undertake as they pray for divine protection through their voyage; the words "God with us" appear on the sail in the upper left corner. The figures at the center of the composition are William Brewster, holding the Bible; Governor Carver, kneeling with head bowed and hat in hand; and pastor John Robinson, with extended arms, looking Heavenward. Gathered around them are the men, women, and children going on the voyage. Some are dressed in traditional puritan attire while others wear more fanciful and bright garments. The armor, helmet, and musket in the foreground represent the tools that the Pilgrims will use for protection in the new and unfamiliar land. In the background on the right are the city and people the Pilgrims leave, and on the left a rainbow represents the hope and promise of what lies ahead. Embarkation of the Pilgrims is Robert Weir's most famous work. Initially, Weir had intended to paint a scene depicting the Mayflower Compact. However, the same subject was proposed by artist and inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, who also sought a commission for one the Rotunda paintings. While Morse did not receive a commission, Weir out of respect chose instead to the paint the embarkation from Delfts Haven. Weir's depiction of the event was drawn from Nathaniel Morton's New-England's Memorial of 1669 and, perhaps, Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana. The armor and costumes Weir collected in Europe were sources for the garments worn by those depicted. The painting was completed in July 1843 and was first seen by the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where Weir was an instructor. The painting then traveled to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia and was hung in the U.S. Capitol in December that same year. The painting has undergone various cleaning, repair, and restoration treatments. In November 1860, the painting was damaged by a falling beam during the construction of the new dome, scraping the painting and causing a hole near the foot of Miles Standish. The War Department detailed Weir from West Point to make the needed repairs. The painting has since undergone periodic cleaning and restoration, including relining and varnishing. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. The Artist Robert Walter Weir was born in New York City on June 18, 1803. He was a largely self-taught artist who had some formal instruction but developed his skills through first copying pictures and later traveling to Europe to study the art of Florence and Rome. He spent much of his career as an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was appointed Instructor of Drawing in 1834 and promoted to Professor in 1846; after forty-two years at the Academy, he retired in 1876 and set up a studio in New York City. In 1857, Weir painted a smaller version of Embarkation of the Pilgrims, which is now in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In the later work, Weir made changes in light and details and achieved greater focus on the three central figures by giving them fuller faces and broader shoulders. Engravings of this later painting have appeared on the reverses of several U. S. currency notes, including a $50 bank note and the $10,000 Federal Reserve note, the largest denomination ever issued to the general public. He painted and exhibited portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes throughout his life—for example, Portrait of Walter Weir (1853), View of the Hudson River (1864), and The Greenwich Boat Club (1833). Weir married Louisa Ferguson in 1829 and later, after her death, married Susan Martha Bayard. He was the father of sixteen children, including artists John Ferguson Weir and Julian Alden Weir. Robert Weir died on May 1, 1889, and is buried at West Point. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/embarkation-pilgrims
5. CAPROT_021223_29.JPG: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis One of four revolutionary period scenes in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Trumbull Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1826 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda The painting Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull is on display in the Rotunda of the US Capitol. The subject of this painting is the surrender of the British army at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, which ended the last major campaign of the Revolutionary War. The blue sky filled with dark clouds and the broken cannon suggest the battles that led to this event. In early September, entrenched with a force of 7,000 men, Cornwallis had hoped for rescue from the sea, but the British vessels were repelled by a French fleet. Within weeks General Washington had deployed a much larger army, and his artillery bombarded the British positions in early October. After American and French troops overran two British strongholds, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19. In the center of the scene, American General Benjamin Lincoln appears mounted on a white horse. He extends his right hand toward the sword carried by the surrendering British officer, who heads the long line of troops that extends into the background. To the left, French officers appear standing and mounted beneath the white banner of the royal Bourbon family. On the right are American officers beneath the Stars and Stripes; among them are the Marquis de Lafayette and Colonel Jonathan Trumbull, the brother of the painter. General George Washington, riding a brown horse, stayed in the background because Lord Cornwallis himself was not present for the surrender. Surrender of Lord Cornwallis in the Capitol Rotunda is one of two paintings that artist John Trumbull completed on this subject. He painted this version between 1819 and 1820, basing it upon a small painting (approximately 20 inches by 30 inches) that he had first envisioned in 1785, when he began to “meditate seriously the subjects of national history, of events of the Revolution.” In 1787 he made preliminary drawings for the small painting. Although he struggled for a time with the arrangement of the figures, he had settled upon a composition by 1788. To create portraits from life of the people depicted in this and other paintings, Trumbull traveled extensively. He obtained sittings with numerous individuals in Paris (including French officers at Thomas Jefferson's house) and in New York. In 1791 he was at Yorktown and sketched the site of the British surrender. He continued to work on the small painting during the following years but did not complete it; nevertheless, in January 1817 he showed it and other works in Washington, D.C., and was given a commission to create four monumental history paintings for the Capitol. Surrender of Lord Cornwallis was the second of these large paintings that he completed. He exhibited it in New York City, Boston, and Baltimore before delivering it to the United States Capitol in late 1820. He completed the small painting around 1828; it is now part of the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery. Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. In 1971, damage from a penny that was thrown hard enough to pierce the canvas was repaired. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/surrender-lord-cornwallis
6. CAPROT_021223_31.JPG: General George Washington Resigning His Commission One of four revolutionary period scenes in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Trumbull Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1826 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda The painting General George Washington Resigning His Commission by John Trumbull is on display in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. This painting depicts the scene on December 23, 1783, in the Maryland State House in Annapolis when George Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The action was significant for establishing civilian authority over the military, a fundamental principle of American democracy. Washington, illuminated by the light falling into the room, stands in uniform before the president of the Continental Congress, Thomas Mifflin, and the delegates, among whom is Thomas Jefferson. Behind Washington are his aides-de-camp, Col. Benjamin Walker and Col. David Humphreys, and spectators. The delegates and spectators direct their attention to Washington as he extends his right hand to return his commission. The empty chair draped in a cloak, suggestive of a throne covered with a king's robe, symbolizes Washington's act of retiring from his position of power. General George Washington Resigning His Commission, painted between 1822 and 1824, was the last of the four paintings that John Trumbull created under his 1817 commission from the U.S. Congress. To depict accurately the figures in the painting, Trumbull copied miniatures he had painted previously, studied portraits by fellow artists, and contacted members of Congress for portraits of the delegates. He based the representation of George Washington on one of his own earlier portraits. Some figures not present at the actual event are shown, including James Madison and Martha Washington and her grandchildren, who appear in the gallery. Trumbull visited and sketched the room, the Senate Chamber of the State House, in 1822, but in creating the painting he altered some elements. The Chamber no longer contained the furnishings used at the time of Washington's resignation. Rather than depict the newer furniture created for the room in 1796, Trumbull copied the chairs he had painted in Declaration of Independence; Washington's larger chair differs from those in which the delegates are seated, which contributes to the suggestion of a throne. The painting was completed in April 1824, and Trumbull took it on tour during the rest of the year in Boston, Providence, Hartford, Albany, Philadelphia, and New York City. General George Washington Resigning His Commission balances the first of Trumbull's Rotunda paintings, Declaration of Independence. The two paintings are similar in composition, with figures seated and standing in the background. The central action in each is the presentation of papers: here, by Washington; in Declaration, by Thomas Jefferson. Both scenes take place in the chambers of a civilian legislature, and Trumbull’s use of similar chairs subtly reinforces the relationship between the two paintings. A smaller version of Washington Resigning that Trumbull completed in 1828 is part of the collection of Yale University Art Gallery. Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/general-george-washington-resigning-his-commission
7. CAPROT_021223_32.JPG: Declaration of Independence One of four revolutionary period scenes in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Trumbull Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1826 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda This painting depicts the moment on June 28, 1776, when the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Second Continental Congress. The document stated the principles for which the Revolutionary War was being fought and which remain fundamental to the nation. Less than a week later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration was officially adopted, it was later signed on August 2, 1776. In the central group in the painting, Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, is shown placing the document before John Hancock, president of the Congress. With him stand the other members of the committee that created the draft: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and Benjamin Franklin. This event occurred in the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. This is the first completed painting of four Revolutionary-era scenes that the U.S. Congress commissioned from John Trumbull (1756–1843) in 1817. It is an enlarged version of a smaller painting (approximately 21 inches by 31 inches) that the artist had created as part of a series to document the events of the American revolution. When Trumbull was planning the smaller painting in 1786, he decided not to attempt a wholly accurate rendering of the scene; rather, he made his goal the preservation of the images of the Nation’s founders. He excluded those for whom no authoritative image could be found or created, and he included delegates who were not in attendance at the time of the event. In all, 47 individuals (42 of the 56 signers and 5 other patriots) are depicted, all painted from life or life portraits. Some of the room’s architectural features (e.g., the number and placement of doors and windows) differ from historical fact, having been based on an inaccurate sketch that Thomas Jefferson produced from memory in Paris. Trumbull also painted more elegant furniture, covered the windows with heavy draperies rather than venetian blinds, and decorated the room’s rear wall with captured British military flags, believing that such trophies were probably displayed there. The exhibition of this small painting (now owned by the Yale University art gallery) was instrumental in securing for the 61-year-old artist a commission to create monumental paintings for the U.S. Capitol. Trumbull created the enlarged painting for the Rotunda between August 1817 and September 1818. On October 5, 1818, the painting was put on public view at the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York. Over the next four months, he exhibited it in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; it was in the Capitol early in 1819 and was displayed or stored in various rooms until 1826, when it and Trumbull’s other three paintings were installed in the Rotunda. Declaration of Independence balances the last of Trumbull’s Rotunda paintings, General George Washington Resigning His Commission. The two paintings are similar in composition, with figures seated and standing in the background. The central action in each is the presentation of papers: here, by Thomas Jefferson; in Washington Resigning, by George Washington. Both scenes take place in the chambers of a civilian legislature, and Trumbull’s use of similar chairs in the two paintings subtly reinforces their relationship. Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. An 1820 engraving of Declaration of Independence by Asher B. Durand, who would later become a renowned landscape painter, helped to make it Trumbull’s most famous painting. It is pictured on the reverse of the two-dollar bill and has appeared on U. S. postage stamps: a 24-cent stamp in the series of 1869 and two sets of bicentennial stamps in 1976 (a sheet of five 18-cent stamps and a strip of four 13-cent stamps). The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/declaration-independence
8. CAPROT_021223_33.JPG: Declaration of Independence One of four revolutionary period scenes in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Trumbull Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1826 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda This painting depicts the moment on June 28, 1776, when the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Second Continental Congress. The document stated the principles for which the Revolutionary War was being fought and which remain fundamental to the nation. Less than a week later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration was officially adopted, it was later signed on August 2, 1776. In the central group in the painting, Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, is shown placing the document before John Hancock, president of the Congress. With him stand the other members of the committee that created the draft: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and Benjamin Franklin. This event occurred in the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. This is the first completed painting of four Revolutionary-era scenes that the U.S. Congress commissioned from John Trumbull (1756–1843) in 1817. It is an enlarged version of a smaller painting (approximately 21 inches by 31 inches) that the artist had created as part of a series to document the events of the American revolution. When Trumbull was planning the smaller painting in 1786, he decided not to attempt a wholly accurate rendering of the scene; rather, he made his goal the preservation of the images of the Nation’s founders. He excluded those for whom no authoritative image could be found or created, and he included delegates who were not in attendance at the time of the event. In all, 47 individuals (42 of the 56 signers and 5 other patriots) are depicted, all painted from life or life portraits. Some of the room’s architectural features (e.g., the number and placement of doors and windows) differ from historical fact, having been based on an inaccurate sketch that Thomas Jefferson produced from memory in Paris. Trumbull also painted more elegant furniture, covered the windows with heavy draperies rather than venetian blinds, and decorated the room’s rear wall with captured British military flags, believing that such trophies were probably displayed there. The exhibition of this small painting (now owned by the Yale University art gallery) was instrumental in securing for the 61-year-old artist a commission to create monumental paintings for the U.S. Capitol. Trumbull created the enlarged painting for the Rotunda between August 1817 and September 1818. On October 5, 1818, the painting was put on public view at the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York. Over the next four months, he exhibited it in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; it was in the Capitol early in 1819 and was displayed or stored in various rooms until 1826, when it and Trumbull’s other three paintings were installed in the Rotunda. Declaration of Independence balances the last of Trumbull’s Rotunda paintings, General George Washington Resigning His Commission. The two paintings are similar in composition, with figures seated and standing in the background. The central action in each is the presentation of papers: here, by Thomas Jefferson; in Washington Resigning, by George Washington. Both scenes take place in the chambers of a civilian legislature, and Trumbull’s use of similar chairs in the two paintings subtly reinforces their relationship. Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. An 1820 engraving of Declaration of Independence by Asher B. Durand, who would later become a renowned landscape painter, helped to make it Trumbull’s most famous painting. It is pictured on the reverse of the two-dollar bill and has appeared on U. S. postage stamps: a 24-cent stamp in the series of 1869 and two sets of bicentennial stamps in 1976 (a sheet of five 18-cent stamps and a strip of four 13-cent stamps). The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/declaration-independence
9. CAPROT_021223_50.JPG: Abraham Lincoln Statue The Basics Artist: Vinnie Ream Materials: Marble, Red Granite Year: 1871 Location: Capitol Rotunda The statue of President Abraham Lincoln depicts him with a serious, contemplative expression. Sculpted by the first female artist commissioned to create a work of art for the United States government. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. His farming family moved frequently, settling in Indiana and then Illinois. Lincoln had little formal education, but he borrowed and read books wherever they lived. In young adulthood he worked as a laborer, ferryman, storekeeper, surveyor, Illinois state legislator, and circuit-court lawyer. In 1842 he married Mary Todd; the couple had four children, of whom only one lived to adulthood. Lincoln was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1846 but served only one term before resuming his law practice. In 1854, however, Congressional action undermining the antislavery cause drew him back to politics. After opposing pro-slavery candidates for the Senate, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for president. He won the election in 1860, but by the time he assumed office in March 1861 seven states in the South had seceded from the Union. The Congress and his own fractious cabinet proved a formidable challenge to the new president's administrative abilities. However, his political skills and his unpretentious yet eloquent way of speaking won him critical support and loyalty. His conviction that the Union must be restored never faltered, and he initially managed the conduct of the war personally. Disappointed in the generals who headed the military effort, he at last found in Ulysses S. Grant a capable and determined officer to whom he could entrust overall command. A milestone of his presidency was his issuance on January 1, 1863, of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in states still in rebellion were free. Lincoln was reelected in 1864, in large part because the tide of the war had turned in favor of the Union. By this time he had become committed not only to restoring the Union and emancipation but also to extending civil rights and the vote to freed slaves. Anticipating the Confederate surrender, he intended that the reconstruction of the South be generous rather than vindictive, despite congressional preference for harsher action. However, he was never to see his goal accomplished. On April 14, 1865, he was shot by Southern partisan actor John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., and he died the following day. Lincoln's body lay in state on the catafalque in the Capitol Rotunda and was taken to Springfield, Illinois, for burial in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The Statue The statue of President Abraham Lincoln in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol depicts him with a serious, contemplative expression. He looks downward at his extended right hand, which holds the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln wears a bow tie, a single-breasted vest and the double-breasted frock coat that he wore to Ford's Theater on the night of his assassination. A long, flowing cloak is draped over his right shoulder and arm, clasped in his left hand. His right leg is slightly bent, and the toe of his right boot projects beyond the front of the self-base. The name of the sculptor, Vinnie Ream, is inscribed on the side of the self-base. The name "ABRAHAM LINCOLN" is carved in relief on the front of the marble pedestal. The red granite base, on which the pedestal stands, was added in 1877. The Sculptor In 1866, at the age of 18, Vinnie Ream was selected by the U.S. Congress to sculpt a memorial statue of President Abraham Lincoln. This made her the first female artist commissioned to create a work of art for the United States government. Ream had previously shown her ability to depict the president in a bust that she created from life in Washington. Her selection, however, was accompanied by controversy because she was young, female, and had friendships with members of Congress. Despite the objections, Ream was given the commission and the statue of Lincoln was unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda in 1871. Ream would later create sculptures for the National Statuary Hall Collection. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/abraham-lincoln-statue
10. CAPROT_021223_55.JPG: Baptism of Pocahontas One of four scenes of early exploration in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Gadsby Chapman Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1840 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda This painting depicts the ceremony in which Pocahontas, daughter of the influential Algonkian chief Powhatan, was baptized and given the name Rebecca in an Anglican church. It took place in 1613 or 1614 in the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement on the North American continent. Pocahontas is thought to be the earliest native convert to Christianity in the English colonies; this ceremony and her subsequent marriage to John Rolfe helped to establish peaceful relations between the colonists and the Tidewater tribes. The figures of Pocahontas and the officiating minister are given prominence by their placement, their bright white clothing, and the light that shines upon them. Pocahontas kneels on the top level of a stepped dais, her head bowed and her hands clasped before her. Reverend Alexander Whiteaker raises his eyes and his left hand, while his right hand rests on the baptismal font. John Rolfe, Pocahontas’s future husband, stands behind her. Other colonists and members of Pocahontas’s family look on, displaying a range of emotions. At the left of the painting, Sir Thomas Dale, deputy governor of the colony, has risen from his chair near the font to observe the event. Pocahontas’s regally dressed brother, Nantequaus, turns away from the ceremony as her uncle Opachisco leans in from the right. The seated, brooding figure of another uncle, Opechankanough, turns completely away from the ceremony while Pocahontas’s sister, with an infant, watches from the floor. An engraving of Baptism of Pocahontas appeared on the reverse of the First Charter $20 National Bank Notes issued in 1863 and 1875. This painting has undergone various cleaning, repair and restoration treatments. In 1925, it was relined because of the damage it suffered from currents of heated air rising from the floor registers. Finding a manufacturer in the United States to provide such a large canvas proved difficult, and the canvas was eventually ordered from a company in Brussels. In 1980 the painting was attached to an aluminum panel to help it resist the effects of changes in temperature and humidity. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently surface cleaned in 2008. The Artist John Gadsby Chapman was born on August 11, 1808, in Alexandria, Virginia. He received encouragement and instruction from history painter George Cooke and portraitist Charles Bird King, and he studied further in Philadelphia. In 1828 he traveled to Italy to study the Old Masters, and in 1831 he returned to America to create landscapes and portraits, which he exhibited in Washington, D.C., Richmond and Philadelphia. He moved in 1834 to New York City, where he became a member of the National Academy of Design and illustrated books and magazines. He also began a series of history paintings depicting events in colonial-era America, and their success led to the commission for Baptism of Pocahontas, his best-known work. Chapman received the commission for the Rotunda painting in 1837 and selected Pocahontas as its subject. He may have chosen to paint her baptism because he had already (in 1836) completed a scene that showed her more widely depicted rescue of John Smith. Seeking to depict the scene of this ceremony accurately, Chapman traveled in England and America to examine objects and buildings from the early 17th century. Because the Jamestown church had since been torn down, he based his setting on a church that he believed to be of similar age and incorporated features appropriate to the colony, such as the pine columns; many details were based on a written description by a Jamestown resident. Chapman created this painting in Washington, D.C., in the loft of a barn on G Street, NW. His life during the time in which he worked on it was marked by great sadness and misfortune: his son died in February 1838, and two weeks later his daughter was born prematurely and survived only ten hours. He was also under mounting pressure from debts and worked quickly on the canvas to collect his payment; after completing it he noted in his day book that the money he received from the government for the painting was "barely equivalent to its cost" to him. The painting was delivered to the U.S. Capitol and installed in November 1840. In 1850 he and his family settled in Rome, where he prospered by selling his works to American tourists. In the 1860s, however, the Civil War curtailed tourist travel; in the 1870s his wife died and he relied on fellow Americans for charity. His health failing, he returned to the United States in 1884 and lived with his son in Brooklyn. He died on November 28, 1889. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/baptism-pocahontas
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2002 photos: Image quality isn't going to be very good for the first half of this year because these are scans of prints. Equipment this year: I took the plunge and bought my first digital camera. It was August 2002 and I bought an Epson PhotoPC 3100Z. While a nice camera, it had some quirks and bumping it would result in it being totally out of focus until you manually shut it down -- something which blurred almost every picture I took in New York City one day. Trips this year: Two weeks out west, one week in New York, and one week down south. This was the year I started the photo web site. It started to come together in August 2002, mostly as a way of allowing me to keep track of the pictures I was taking. It took awhile to add some basic bells and whistles (logging didn't get added until November) but it's been pretty much like it started out since then. Archaic but working, and free!
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