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THIRTEEN
HISTORICAL
MARINE
PAINTINGS
BY
EDWARD MORAN
REPRESENTING
THIRTEEN CHAPTERS
OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
[Decoration]
By THEODORE SUTRO
1905
[Illustration: Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro.
EDWARD MORAN
From a painting by Thomas Sidney Moran]
THIRTEEN CHAPTERS
OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
REPRESENTED
BY THE
EDWARD MORAN
SERIES OF
THIRTEEN HISTORICAL
MARINE PAINTINGS
[Decoration]
_By_ THEODORE SUTRO
1905
NEW YORK:
THEODORE SUTRO, 280 BROADWAY
AND
THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO.
PUBLISHER'S AGENTS,
33-37 EAST 17TH STREET.
_$1.50 net._
Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro
To
_My Dear Wife_
FLORENCE
THROUGH WHOSE STEADFAST FRIENDSHIP FOR
MR. AND MRS. EDWARD MORAN AND LOYAL DEVOTION
TO ME, I WAS LED TO CHAMPION, AND
ENCOURAGED TO PERSEVERE IN ESTABLISHING,
THE RIGHTS OF THE WIDOW TO THESE MASTERWORKS,
WITHOUT WHICH THE OCCASION FOR
PENNING THESE PAGES WOULD NOT HAVE ARISEN--THIS
LITTLE WORK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED,
ON THE
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR MARRIAGE,
October 1st, 1904.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
FRONTISPIECE--Portrait of Edward Moran, from a painting by
THOMAS SIDNEY MORAN
INTRODUCTORY 7
BIOGRAPHICAL 15
PORTRAIT OF MRS. EDWARD MORAN, from a painting by
THOMAS SIDNEY MORAN Facing page 20
DESCRIPTIVE AND EXPLANATORY:
I. THE OCEAN--THE HIGHWAY OF ALL NATIONS 27
II. LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON IN THE NEW WORLD IN
THE YEAR 1001 33
III. THE SANTA MARIA, NINA AND PINTA (Evening of October
11th, 1492) 39
IV. THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS (Morning of October
12th, 1492) 39
V. MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI, OVER THE BODY OF
FERDINAND DE SOTO, 1542 47
VI. HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY, September
11th, 1609 53
VII. EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS FROM SOUTHAMPTON,
August 5th, 1620 59
VIII. FIRST RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG BY A
FOREIGN GOVERNMENT. In the Harbor of Quiberon,
France, February 13th, 1778 67
IX. BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA. In the Harbor
of Tripoli, February 16th, 1804 73
X. THE BRIG ARMSTRONG ENGAGING THE BRITISH FLEET.
In the Harbor of Fayal, September 26th, 1814 79
XI. IRON VERSUS WOOD--SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND BY
THE MERRIMAC. In Hampton Roads, March 8th, 1862 87
XII. THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE TO THE
BODY OF CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON, New York Bay,
August 25th, 1890 95
XIII. RETURN OF THE CONQUERORS. Typifying Our Victory
in the late Spanish-American War, September 29th, 1899 105
INDEX 111
INTRODUCTORY
[Illustration: T. S. M.]
INTRODUCTORY.
The Thirteen Paintings, to a history and description of which (and
incidentally to a brief memoir of their creator, Edward Moran) these
pages are devoted, are monumental in their character and importance. Mr.
Moran designated them as representing the "Marine History of the United
States." I have somewhat changed this title; for even the untraversed
"Ocean" and the landing of Columbus in the new world represent periods
which necessarily affect the whole American Continent.
The conception of these pictures was in itself a mark of genius, for no
more fitting subjects could have been chosen by the greatest marine
painter in the United States than the heroic and romantic incidents
connected with the sea, which are so splendidly depicted in these
thirteen grand paintings. That their execution required over fifteen
years of ceaseless labor and the closest historical study is not
surprising. The localities, the ships, the armament, the personages, the
costumes, the weapons and all the incidents connected with each epoch
are minutely and correctly represented, in so far as existing records
rendered that possible. And yet, interwoven with each canvas, is a tone
so poetic and imaginative that stamps it at once as the offspring of
genius and lifts it far above the merely photographic and realistic. The
series is the result of a life of prolific production, careful study,
unceasing industry and great experience.
Mr. Moran himself regarded these pictures as his crowning work, and in
token of his many happy years of married life presented them, several
years before his death, to his wife, Annette Moran, herself an artist of
great merit, and whom he always mentioned as his best critic and the
inspirer of his greatest achievements. This loving act, strange to say,
gave rise to a protracted legal controversy, by reason of an adverse
claim to these paintings made by the executor of the estate of Edward
Moran, the final decision of which in favor of the widow, after three
years of litigation, lends additional interest to these remarkable works
of art. Proceedings to recover the pictures from the executor of the
estate, who had them in his possession and refused to deliver them to
her, were commenced on February 5, 1902, and after a trial in the
Supreme Court in the City of New York lasting several days, a jury
decided that the pictures were the property of the widow as claimed. On
a technical point of law raised by the executor this finding of the jury
was temporarily rendered ineffective, but, on an appeal to the Appellate
Division of the Supreme Court, this technicality was overruled and an
absolute judgment awarded in favor of the widow.[A] This was on January
23, 1903. Still not content, the executor appealed to the highest court
in the State, the Court of Appeals at Albany, which, on January 26,
1904, finally and absolutely affirmed the decision of the Appellate
Division.[B] But even then the widow was kept out of her property on
further applications made by the executor to the court. Also in this he
failed, and at last, on April 28, 1904, the judgment in her favor was
satisfied through the delivery of the pictures to her, as her absolute
property, beyond dispute, cavil or further question.
I have deemed it proper to make this explanation, as it is through my
connection as counsel for Mrs. Moran throughout this litigation that the
occasion has presented itself for this publication, and of giving to
the public the opportunity to examine and enjoy, to the fullest extent,
these great pictures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
It may be added that although these paintings have occasionally been
viewed by artists, they have never before been publicly exhibited as a
series except for a very short period in the year 1900 in Philadelphia
and in Washington. During this time they received the highest encomiums
from critics and the press, and were pronounced the most notable series
of historic pictures ever painted in this country. While each one of the
series is a master work, it is as a group that the greatest interest
attaches to them, and it was Mr. Moran's desire, and it is also that of
the present owner, that they should, if possible, never be separated.
With reference to the exhibition of these paintings at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, I quote from a full page illustrated article which
appeared in the New York _Herald_ on Sunday, November 6, 1904, as
follows:
"The exhibition of these pictures of scenes connected with the
history of the United States is not only an artistic but an
educational event. Edward Moran was probably the strongest marine
painter of the United States. * * * No more artistically valuable
and educationally instructive exhibit has been made in New York
than that of these paintings of Edward Moran. It is to be hoped
that the school children of the city will be taken to see and study
them. The public has already testified to its appreciation of the
exhibition by its large attendance."
It may be asked why the artist limited or extended the series to the
number "13." This was done with a purpose. This number seems to have
been interwoven in many particulars with the history of our country. The
original colonies were thirteen, and also the first States; the first
order for the creation of a navy was for thirteen war ships; there were
and still are thirteen stripes, and there were originally thirteen
stars, on our flag; on our coat of arms a mailed hand grasps thirteen
arrows, as do also the left talons of the eagle, while in its right is
an olive branch with thirteen leaves; there were also thirteen rattles
on the snake on the first American flag, with the motto "Don't tread on
me." It was on February 13, 1778, in the harbor of Quiberon, that the
American flag received its first recognition by a foreign government, an
incident represented by one of these paintings; thirteen years elapsed
between the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the inauguration of
the first President, General Washington, in 1789; and the Louisiana
purchase from France includes the area prospectively covered by thirteen
States, as soon as Oklahoma and Indian Territories shall, as is now in
contemplation, be admitted as one State.
This idea of thirteen is already foreshadowed in the introductory
painting "The Ocean," in which thirteen gulls are seen hovering over the
water, typical of the important events, linked with that number, which
would occur in the misty and unknown future.
It is remarkable that although these paintings are by one man, and
virtually on the same subject, they should exhibit such unusual variety,
and be individually so exceptionally interesting. It has been said that
historic pictures may be considered as either representative, suggestive
or allegoric, but in this series of paintings all these elements are
combined.
The American navy has been celebrated for its heroic achievements from
the beginning, and some of these pictures recall vividly to the mind the
episodes linked with the immortal names of such men as John Paul Jones,
Stephen Decatur, Samuel Chester Reid, George U. Morris, John L. Worden,
and the whole galaxy of heroes connected with these memorable events
down to Dewey, Sampson, Schley, Wainwright and Hobson.
The production of these paintings was the result of a patriotic and
noble impulse on the part of the artist, through which he has
immortalized the maritime achievements of our country, and for which we,
as well as future generations, can hardly be sufficiently grateful!
"If thou wouldst touch the universal heart,
Of thine own country, sing!"
BIOGRAPHICAL
[Illustration: T. S. M.]
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Edward Moran was almost seventy-two years of age when he died in the
City of New York on June 9, 1901, having been born at Bolton,
Lancashire, England, on August 19, 1829. He was the oldest son of a
large family of children, and when a mere child was put to work at the
loom, the humble vocation of his father who, the same as his ancestors
had been for several generations, was a hand-loom weaver. Already while
so employed the child was frequently caught sketching with charcoal on
the white fabric in his loom instead of continually plying the shuttle.
Whence and how he derived this inborn talent is one of those unsolvable
problems which seem to set at defiance all the accepted canons of
heredity. At all events, his talent was recognized by a local village
celebrity, a decorator, who guided the child, then only nine years of
age, in a crude way to a development of these artistic instincts, in
consequence of which it is related that he was soon able to "cut
marvellous figures from paper and afterwards draw their outlines on
walls and fences."
The hardship of their pursuit, offering little hope of a brighter future
for their large family of growing children, induced the parents about
the year 1844 to join the tide of emigration to that land of golden
promise, the United States, in immortalizing whose history and in
furthering whose artistic development through his glorious marine
pictures, the little Edward was destined to play so important a part.
The family settled in Maryland, and in the struggle for existence soon
awakened from their golden dream of a new Eldorado and returned to
their old vocation. Edward again found employment at the loom, until the
spirit of adventure and the desire of following the artistic bent of his
mind impelled him one day, without a dollar in his pocket, to walk all
the way to Philadelphia, where the boy hoped to find better
opportunities. There also, however, he was disappointed, and after
employment in various capacities, first with a cabinetmaker, then in a
bronzing shop, and then at house painting, he finally returned to the
loom at the munificent salary of six dollars per week. While so employed
he attracted the attention of the proprietor, who one day surprised him
while engaged in a superb drawing, stealing time for this purpose from
his work. The intelligence of this man in recognizing young Moran's
exceptional talent, and, as a result, advising him to quit mechanical
labor, and introducing him to one of the then famous landscape painters
of Philadelphia, Mr. Paul Webber, was the turning point in his career.
Subsequently another artist, James Hamilton, guided him in his
particular bent of marine painting, and after the usual hardships and
struggle for recognition, the fate of all young artists, he finally was
enabled to open a little studio in a garret over a cigar store with an
entrance up a back alley. The works which emanated from there attracted
such wide attention that he gradually rose to fame and fortune. His
pictures were accepted by all the American academies, as well as the
London Royal Academy and the Paris Salon, and he received many medals
and awards. He was a member of the Water-Color Societies of this country
and of London, of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, an Associate of
the National Academy of Design, also Vice-President of the Lotos Club
and connected with many other artistic and social organizations and
societies.
Why his artistic tastes should have been particularly directed to
marine painting can be demonstrated just as little as the possession of
his extraordinary talents at all; and yet for the former a possible
solution may be found in the fact that his childish imagination and
predilections may have been moulded through his sea-coast experiences in
old Lancashire, that picturesque maritime county of northwestern
England, which is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea. At all events
Edward Moran loved the sea, and this love guided every stroke of his
brush in depicting his favorite element. No artist in this country, or
perhaps in the world, has ever painted such water, and it was not many
years after his first successes in Philadelphia that his fame spread
throughout the United States, and he was easily recognized as its first
marine painter. Fame and prosperity, however, did not turn his head, as
they so frequently do with little men, but never with men of true
genius. On the contrary, he worked with redoubled zeal and industry as
he grew older, so that the number of works which he produced is
marvellous.
Among his famous paintings, besides the thirteen herein described, may
be mentioned the following:
"Virginia Sands."
"A Squally Day off Newport."
"Massachusetts Bay."
"New York Harbor."
"The Yacht Race."
"The Battle of Svold."
"Philadelphia from the New Park."
"Minot's Ledge Light-House."
"White Cliffs of Albion."
"Off Block Island."
"Return of the Fishers."
"Outward Bound."
"Low Tide."
"The Gathering Storm."
"Sentinel Rock, Maine."
"Toilers of the Sea."
"Launching of the Life-Boat." (1865.)
"View on Delaware Bay." (1867.)
"Evening on Vineyard Sound." (1867.)
"Pinchyn Castle, North Wales." (1867.)
"Moonrise at Nahant." (1867.)
"The Lord Staying the Waters." (1867.)
"Coast Scene Near Digby." (1868.)
"Departure of the United States Fleet for Port Royal." (1868.)
"After a Gale." (1869.)
"On the Narrows." (1873.)
"The Commerce of Nations Paying Homage to Liberty" (1877)--the great
picture which came into the possession of Mr. Joseph Drexel, the
banker--an allegory suggested by the then proposed Statue of Liberty in
New York Harbor.
"Young Americans out on a Holiday." (1882.)
"Life-Saving Patrol: New Jersey Coast." (1889.)
"Melodies of the Sea." (1890.)
"South Coast of England." (1900.)
But space forbids the complete enumeration of even his more notable
works, which may be counted by the hundreds.
Mr. Moran, like all men of genius, felt his own strength, though he
never overrated it; but as a result of this self-consciousness he would
not brook depreciation, and when, in May, 1868, the Philadelphia Academy
of Fine Arts, of which he was a member, had hung some of his pictures in
an inconspicuous and detrimental position in its gallery, he resorted to
a novel expedient for showing his displeasure. On "varnishing day,"
prior to the opening of the exhibition to the public, he used a mixture
of beer and porter, combined with a dry light red, for the purpose of
"varnishing" his paintings, but the effect of which was that they were
all coated with a beautiful opaque red substance, so that none of them
could be recognized, and yet a substance which he could remove, when so
inclined, without injuring the pictures at all. This called forth a
storm of criticism from the "Hanging Committee" and the wiseacres of the
Academy, but he was fully sustained in his course by public opinion and
the press, and, instead of diminishing, it added to his fame as an
artist and certainly to his reputation for the courage of his
convictions.
Mr. Moran was not only a great artist, but a man of genial and
companionable qualities, which endeared him to all with whom he came in
contact. He, furthermore, was not only an artist who used oil,
water-color and pastel with equal facility, and painted landscapes and
figure pieces as well as marines, but was versatile in his talents. His
musical instincts were marked, and, although self-taught, he played on a
number of instruments, and he had also, through years of industrious
reading and study, become thoroughly well-informed and an interesting
conversationalist. He was of a most generous nature, and was not only
ever ready to assist young artists with advice and material aid as well,
but also, when the occasion arose, to devote the fruit of his labors to
any meritorious charitable object. Thus, for example, in March, 1871, he
exhibited in Philadelphia seventy-five of his landscapes and marines,
all of which he used in illustrating a beautiful catalogue entitled
"Land and Sea," and not only gave the entire profits of this exhibition
and of the sale of the catalogue, but also the price obtained for one of
his important paintings, entitled "The Relief Ship Entering Havre," to
aid the sufferers of the Franco-Prussian war.
He did not reach the culminating point of excellence in his work in
middle life or shortly thereafter, like so many other painters, but on
the contrary grew in breadth and power with advancing years, so that the
Thirteen Historical Paintings, described in this little book, although
he gave them the finishing touches only shortly before his death,
constitute his greatest achievement.
About the year 1872 Mr. Moran sought a still wider field for his
activities in removing from Philadelphia to the City of New York, where
for thirty years he was a conspicuous and admired figure in metropolitan
life, and in his studios, surrounded by all the luxury and comfort that
prosperity could suggest, he and his talented and hospitable wife drew
around them a circle of artists, authors, musicians and notable men of
all classes, among whom may be mentioned actors like Joseph Jefferson,
F. F. Mackay (both pupils of Mr. Moran) and Charles W. Couldock, writers
like Richard Watson Gilder and John Clark Ridpath, lawyers like Col.
Edward C. James and Robert Ingersoll, art connoisseurs like Samuel P.
Avery and William Schaus, sculptors like Frederic A. Bartholdi and James
W. A. Macdonald, and of course a host of artists such as Edwin Abbey,
Albert Bierstadt, Edwin H. Blashfield, John C. Brown, Thomas B. Craig,
Hamilton Hamilton, Constant Meyer, Paul de Longpre, Henry W. Ranger,
Vasili Vereschagin and Napoleon Sarony.
It may be added that Mrs. Moran's maiden name was Annette Parmentier,
and that she was a Southern girl of French descent from the noted
scientist Antoine Augustin Parmentier, who was the first to introduce
the potato into France, for which he was decorated by Louis XVI as a
public benefactor, and honored by a statue erected in his native town of
Bordeaux. Mr. Moran married Annette (his second wife) in the year 1869,
and under his instruction and guidance her own talent as an artist was
developed, and some of her paintings, among them landscapes entitled "A
Staten Island Study," "The Fisherman's Return," and other pictures, were
not only exhibited and greatly admired, but were deemed of sufficient
importance to be reproduced by prominent art publishers. She survived
her husband by about three and one-half years, having died, at an
advanced age, in the City of New York on November 7, 1904.
[Illustration: Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro.
MRS. EDWARD MORAN
(NEE ANNETTE PARMENTIER)
From a painting by Thomas Sidney Moran]
In his art Mr. Moran followed mainly the bent of his own genius, though
if he was influenced by any other artists to any extent it was by
Clarkson Stanfield and Turner, whom he greatly admired and many of whose
pictures, for the sake of practice, he copied. He was undoubtedly also
influenced in a general way, as are all eminent artists, by studying the
master works of the world in Europe, where for that purpose he spent
some time in the year 1861 and again in 1878 and also in subsequent
years.
Of Edward Moran it may be truly said that he is another notable example
of the fact that true genius is not baffled or impaired through adverse
circumstances or the most humble beginnings, but soars ever upward and
onward until it achieves its mission, and compels the recognition and
admiration of the world, to which it is entitled.
DESCRIPTIVE
AND
EXPLANATORY
[Illustration: T. S. M.]
THE OCEAN
The Highway of All Nations
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
DESCRIPTIVE AND EXPLANATORY.
I.
THE OCEAN--THE HIGHWAY OF ALL NATIONS.[C]
This picture has already been briefly referred to, and is considered by
some critics the greatest of the thirteen. Probably no such sublime
ocean has ever been painted. How thoroughly it appeals to those who best
know the sea is illustrated by the blunt but expressive compliment
bestowed upon it by Admiral Hopkins of the English navy when, in 1892,
he saw it in the Union League Club of New York, where it was being
privately shown. After silently studying it for some minutes he turned
to Mr. Joseph H. Choate, whose guest he was, and said: "I have always
believed that only an Englishman could paint the sea, but it seems that
I had to come to America to look upon the most almighty sea that I have
ever beheld on canvas."
Admiral Hopkins was not aware that, in this, he was in fact
complimenting one of his own fellow-countrymen, though, in truth, Mr.
Moran had become an American of Americans through his patriotic ardor
and long residence here.
In this painting the powers of Mr. Moran as an artist were tested to the
utmost. For while others have attempted to paint the sea, among whom
Turner stands pre-eminent, few have ever succeeded in depicting it on so
large a scale, without a single other object to disturb the aspect
excepting only the thirteen sea-gulls hovering over its surface, which
through their number suggest the whole series of these paintings and the
interesting events connected with the marine history of the United
States.
This picture is the largest of the series. Not only the water but the
sky in this painting is superb, with the faint shimmer of the sunlight
breaking through the clouds. The color is that peculiar green gray,
which is the most fascinating hue known to the sea, and only present
when the sky is overcast. The water and the motion of the waves are
grand beyond comparison--an actual living, moving, foaming mass and as
seen in mid-ocean. The conception of this painting as introductory to
the whole series is most poetic. It suggests the deep, dark, dreaded,
unknown waste of waters which was shrouded in mystery for thousands of
years until a few daring seamen, first the Norsemen, and then Columbus
with his little band, undertook the perilous task of lifting the veil.
Its unexplored expanse naturally and logically preceded every voyage of
discovery and is the keynote of all the marvellous achievements which
subsequently constituted it the link between America and the Eastern
world. It also typifies the greatest of all republics, which was to
spring up beyond its westernmost limits, for nothing is so free,
unfettered and seemingly conscious of its own strength and possibilities
as the mighty ocean.
This painting may be likened to the opening stanzas of an epic poem, in
which the theme of the story is foreshadowed, and no grander epic was
ever written than is depicted in these thirteen mighty paintings, of all
those qualities of heroism and adventure which have ever been thought
worthy of commemoration in song or story.
How well the famous stanzas of Lord Byron, in Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage, illustrate the thoughts suggested by this "Ocean" of Edward
Moran:
"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin--his control
Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown.
* * * * * * * * *
"Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,
Calm or convulsed--in breeze, or gale, or storm,
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime
Dark-heaving;--boundless, endless and sublime--
The image of Eternity--the throne
Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone."
LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON
in the New World in 1001
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
II.
LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON IN THE NEW WORLD, IN 1001.[D]
While the most notable occurrence in its influence on America was
undoubtedly the landing of Columbus, as it resulted in the gradual
colonization and development of the whole continent, the actual
discovery of the new world was made ages prior to 1492. The landing of
Lief Erickson was made in 1001, but there is good reason to believe that
even long prior to that time either the shores or the islands of America
were reached by Phoenicians, Irish and Basques, and its western shores
by the Chinese. The earliest discovery, however, of which there is any
authenticated record is that by the Eirek (Erick) family of Iceland, and
these records are not only embraced in the Sagas or histories of the
Scandinavian chieftains, but more especially in the "Codex Flataeensis,"
completed in 1387. According to these, Eirek the Red founded colonies in
Greenland about the year 985, which prospered for over four centuries.
Remains of buildings and contemporaneous writings establish this beyond
a doubt. These colonies became Christianized and established churches,
monasteries, and had bishops in regular succession for about two hundred
and fifty years. There is nothing marvellous about this account, as
Greenland was only about two hundred miles distant from Iceland, and
therefore nearer to that island than the latter was to Norway, whence
the Icelanders originally came. These colonies became practically
extinct in the fourteenth century, owing, it is believed, to enormous
accumulations of ice on the coast, which prevented intercommunication
between them and Iceland, and cut off their chief food supplies. They
may also have been decimated through the great pestilence called the
Black Death, which prevailed in 1349, especially in the northern
countries; while, if any remained, they are supposed to have been killed
by the Esquimos, or Skraelings, as they were then called, and who were a
far more powerful race than the Esquimos of to-day.
The foothold thus gained by the Norsemen in Greenland led to voyages
southward. Some years after the establishment of these colonies one
Bjarne Herjulfson was on one of these voyages driven by a storm far
south of Greenland and saw the coast of the main continent of North
America, somewhere, it is supposed from his description, between
Newfoundland and Nantucket. Without landing, he returned to Greenland,
whence soon thereafter, induced by his accounts, Leif, the son of Eirek
the Red, undertook the same journey with a single ship and about
thirty-five men, for the purpose of obtaining possession of the newly
discovered country. He landed probably at Nantucket Island, and settled
in the vicinity of the present Fall River, and called the country
Vinland on account of the grape-vines which grew there in profusion.
In confirmation of the claim that it was in this locality that Leif
Erickson first set foot, the Norse records are relied upon, which state
that, at the season when this discovery was made, the sun rose at 7:30
A.M. and set at 4:30 P.M. This astronomical observation would locate the
place of landing on the southern coast of New England in the vicinity
mentioned. That the Norsemen made a settlement in this country, though
only of brief duration, is a fact in support of which many learned
treatises have been written, dealing, among other things, with what are
supposed to be Icelandic inscriptions discovered in that section of the
country, and the like, a consideration of which, however, would be
beyond the scope of this writing.
Leif, the son of Eirek, or to preserve the nomenclature of the artist,
Lief Erickson, is described in the Sagas and other records as a large,
strong man, of imposing appearance. The ships in which voyages were made
by the Norsemen in those days were called drakkars, which were propelled
both by oar and sail; at the ends rose wooden apartments called kastals.
All the parts out of water were fashioned after the manner of monsters
or drakkars (dragons, _Drachen_). The prow of the ship represented the
terrible head, the sides, a continuation of the body, and the rear, the
tail of the monster bent upward; they bore a single sail covered with
warlike paintings, and to the mast were also frequently hoisted the
coats of arms of various chiefs. It was in ships of this character that
these bold seamen braved the perils of the ocean, and it was in similar
ships that William, the Conqueror, came to England; and yet even these
vessels, frail as they were, were superior, both in seaworthiness and
size, to the ships of Columbus.
The costumes of the Norsemen consisted of trousers, belt, shirt, and
often a coat of mail, and over the shoulders they sometimes wore a cloak
with a fringe or border at the sides. They carried swords with most
elaborately carved and embossed hilts and scabbards of gilt bronze and
silver.
To depict the first landing of Lief Erickson amid these surroundings was
the object of the painter. How well he has succeeded, a mere inspection
of this canvas will at once reveal. The heroic figure of Lief, himself,
dreamily and yet with wonderment, looking out upon the newly discovered
shore, while with uplifted sword his men are apparently consecrating
the new world with a solemn vow of loyalty, some standing on a small
boat which is being pushed towards the shore, while others stand
knee-deep in the shoal water--the form of the ship or drakkar in the
background, the costumes, swords and all the other accessories--constitute
a striking and fascinating group. It portrays vividly the solemnity of
the occasion when the first white men were about to set foot on the
American continent.
The discovery of Vinland and its subsequent colonization by Thorfinn are
referred to in the beautiful verses of Bayard Taylor, written on the
occasion of his visit to Iceland to attend its millennial celebration,
in August, 1874.
"We come, the children of thy Vinland,
The youngest of the world's high peers,
O land of steel, and song, and saga,
To greet thy glorious thousand years.
"Across that sea the son of Erik
Dared with his venturous dragon's prow;
From shores where Thorfinn set thy banner
Their latest children seek thee now.
* * * * * * * * *
"What though thy native harps be silent?
The chord they struck shall ours prolong;
We claim thee kindred, call thee mother,
O land of saga, steel and song!"
THE SANTA MARIA, NINA AND PINTA
(_Evening of October 11, 1492_)
[Decoration]
THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS
(_Morning of October 12, 1492_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
III.
THE SANTA MARIA, NINA AND PINTA (EVENING OF OCTOBER 11, 1492)[E]
AND
IV.
THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS (MORNING OF OCTOBER 12, 1492).[F]
The landing of Columbus was an historical event of such importance in
its consequences that the artist wisely celebrates it in both of these
pictures.
We little realize what it meant to brave the perils of the unexplored
ocean in the year 1492. We marvel when some adventurous navigator, even
now, when every current and wind of the ocean have been observed for
five hundred years, and are accurately known and precisely charted,
undertakes to cross it in a somewhat diminutive vessel. What, then, must
have been the courage of Columbus, when, at the advanced age of
fifty-seven, he ventured with his crew upon this perilous undertaking in
three frail barks or caravels, the largest of them equipped with a
single deck and a single bridge, with an awkward one-story compartment
at the prow and a two-story compartment at the stern, and the two others
without any deck at all, with their little masts carrying awkward,
unwieldy, partly square and partly lateen sails!
The three crews consisted of only one hundred and four men combined, of
which fifty were on the little "Santa Maria," which was only about
sixty-three feet over all in length, with a fifty-one foot keel, twenty
foot beam, and a depth of ten and one-half feet, under the command of
the "Admiral" himself, as he was pompously called, and thirty on the
still smaller "Pinta," under the command of "Captain" Martin Alonso
Pinzon, while the still more diminutive cockle-shell "Nina" contained
the formidable crew of twenty-four under the command of the brother of
Martin Alonso, the redoubtable "Captain" Vincente Yanez Pinzon. And then
to think that, instead of being encouraged and lauded for his
enterprise, the prelude consisted of discouragement, derision and
persecution of the foolhardy seaman who dared to brave the superstitions
of the age and the unknown ocean which was supposed to be peopled with
demons and monsters, in quest of what was believed to be an absolutely
impossible pathway to China and the East Indies, and from which there
could not be any hope of return. A model of these caravels was exhibited
in the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, at the sight of which
wonder grew to incredulity that, under such circumstances as surrounded
this first voyage of Columbus, any one should have risked his life in
such a craft.
Even assuming with John Fiske that the spherical form of the earth was
known long before Columbus, and that he derived his knowledge of the
existence of the westernmost shore of the Atlantic Ocean through
information which he received of the voyages of the Norsemen, on his
visit to Iceland in 1477, his opinion that the same shore might be
reached by crossing the Atlantic, where it had never been traversed
before, was based upon mere surmise. No wonder that his crew were
disheartened and on the verge of open mutiny when, under such
circumstances, after about sixty-nine days had elapsed since they had
sailed from Palos on August 3, 1492, they had still not reached the
longed-for land. What faith, almost inspired, must have been his, that
he should succeed in persuading his men to hold out only a few days
more, and how strange that on the very next day, the seventieth of his
voyage, on the evening of October 11, 1492, the long-wished-for goal
should be descried in the dim distance, and that on the following day
they should actually disembark from their floating prisons to stand once
more upon solid ground!
The artist has chosen the inspiring moments of these two events to
immortalize them in these two pictures: in the one, the three tiny barks
in the shadow of the evening, still in the gloom and uncertainty of what
the morrow would bring forth--and then, in the other, the brilliant
spectacle of Columbus with cross uplifted, in magnificent regalia of
scarlet and gold and purple, and his officers with the standards of
Castile and Leon, and the white and green colors of the expedition,
disembarking with his men when his hopes had become a reality, for the
purpose of claiming the newly discovered land.
I quote from Emilio Castelar the following description of the events
illustrated by these pictures:
"Land! land! the cry fell as a joyous peal upon the ears of these
mariners who had given themselves up as lost and doomed to die in
the fathomless vast.
"When Columbus heard the glad cry he knelt in rapture on the deck
and with clasped hands lifted his joy-filled eyes to Heaven and
intoned the 'Gloria in Excelsis' to the Author of all things.
"The signs of land now made it high time to prepare for the
debarkation for which all measures had been wisely planned by the
admiral, who had never doubted the realization of his predictions.
"Each moment brought a revelation. A solitary, half-tamed
turtle-dove flew near them and was followed by a floating, leafy
reed.
"About two in the morning of October 12th, amid the sheen of the
stars and phosphorescence of the sea, one of the crew, with eyes
accustomed, like some nocturnal creature, to the darkness, cried
'Land! land!'
* * * * * * * * *
"Columbus donned his richest apparel, upon his shoulders a cloak of
rosy purple, and grasped in one hand the sword of combat and in the
other the Redeemer's cross; then, disembarking, he knelt upon the
land, and, with uplifted arms, joined with his followers in the Te
Deum."
In these paintings much is left to the imagination, which renders them
all the more beautiful and poetical, although also in them the artist
has accurately portrayed the caravels, costumes, figures and indications
of the nearby shore, so that the scenes are vividly brought to mind as
actually described in the journals of the great navigator himself and
his first biographer, his own son Ferdinand.
It is not the purpose of the author to write history, and yet how
tempting, in the study of these pictures, is it to reflect upon and
recall the romance which surrounds the whole life of Columbus and his
period: the honors which he received on his return to Spain, his
subsequent two additional voyages of discovery, when, to those of the
first, consisting of San Salvador, Cuba, and the other islands, he added
that of the continent of South America; how he returned from his third
voyage in chains and afterwards died in poverty and forgotten at
Valladolid, on May 20, 1506, his name scarcely mentioned at the time in
the records of that town; how still stranger that Columbus never knew
that he had discovered a new continent, but believed that, as he had
originally intended, he had reached the shores of the Indies and China
or Cathay by a new route, and therefore gave them the name which has
ever since attached to the islands where he first landed, of the West
Indies, and called the natives, Indians; and, strangest of all, that
four hundred and six years after he first landed at San Salvador, the
remains of the great discoverer should have been transferred from the
cathedral at Havana to Spain, the scene of all his triumphs and all his
sorrows, on September 24, 1898, just about the close of the
Spanish-American war, which is celebrated in the last or thirteenth of
this remarkable series of paintings.
The courage, faith and fortitude of Columbus in persisting in his
westward journey, in full confidence that he would eventually reach the
shore which must ever have been pictured in his mind, in spite of the
doubts and fears and protestations of his weary crew, are beautifully
and concisely expressed in the stanzas of Friedrich Schiller:[G]
"Brave sailor, steer onward! Though the jester deride
And the hand of the pilot the helm drops in fear;
Sail on to the West, till that shore is descried
Which so clearly defined to thy mind doth appear.
"Follow God's guiding hand and the great silent ocean!
For the shore, were it not, from the waves it would rise.
With genius is nature linked in such bonds of devotion
That what genius presages, nature never denies."
MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Over the Body of Ferdinand de Soto
1542
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
V.
MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI OVER THE BODY OF FERDINAND DE SOTO,
1542.[H]
As simple, gloomy and severe as were the circumstances surrounding the
departure of the expeditions of Lief Erickson and Columbus, and
subsequently of Henry Hudson and the Pilgrim Fathers, so brilliant,
hopeful and coveted was the journey of Fernando De Soto, when he set
sail from Spain in April, 1538, to conquer Florida and in search of a
new Eldorado. Having previously returned from the conquest of Peru, as
the chief lieutenant of Francisco Pizarro, possessed of great wealth,
and through his marriage with the beautiful Isabella Bobadilla
affiliated with the highest nobility, and having been appointed Governor
of Cuba by Charles V.--the flower of the Spanish and Portuguese
aristocracy flocked to his standard. The seven large and three small
ships, including his flag-ship, the "San Christoval," in which the
expedition set sail, were fitted out with great splendor. De Soto was
then forty-two years of age, having been born at Xeres, Spain, in 1496,
while his followers were mostly young men, and a more gorgeous or joyous
company cannot be imagined. With them went the wife of De Soto and many
other beautiful women, and the voyage was one round of pleasure and
festivities. After landing and wintering in Cuba he started from there
in May, 1539, with a following of one thousand men in nine ships,
leaving the administration of Cuba in the hands of his wife and the
Lieutenant-Governor. The original splendor was preserved, the leaders
being clad in gorgeous armor and, followed by a host of servants and
priests, they took with them all manner of live stock, cattle, horses,
mules, etc., and were provided with all sorts of weapons and trappings,
but also, significantly, with blood-hounds, handcuffs and iron
neck-collars. Thus they landed in Florida, in the neighborhood of Tampa
Bay, and began their march northward in the month of June, 1539, the
cavaliers to the number of one hundred and thirteen on horseback, and
the rest on foot. They passed the winter near the present Georgia
border, and in the spring of 1540 reached the location of the present
city of Savannah. Instead of pacifying, they alienated the natives
through many acts of hostility, in the exuberance of their youth and
prowess, in consequence of which many members of the expedition were
killed in battle and others died through sickness and deprivation.
Nevertheless, they pushed on still further westward towards the Rocky
Mountains, and in May, 1541, discovered and crossed the Mississippi
River near Lower Chickasaw Bluff, a little north of the thirty-fourth
parallel of latitude, in Tunica County, in what is now the State of
Mississippi. On again reaching the Mississippi on the return march, De
Soto, in consequence of the exposure and hardships to which he had been
subjected, sank down with a fever from which he died on May 21, 1542.
Owing to the awe which he had inspired in the minds of the natives it
was deemed wise by the remnant of his followers to conceal the fact of
his death. Accordingly at the dead of night he was wrapped in a flag, in
which sand had been sown, and taken in a boat to the middle of the
river, and amid the glare of torches, the chanting by the priests of the
midnight mass, and his sorrowing and silent companions, solemnly
consigned to the depths of the great river.
It is this solemn moment which the artist has caught in the painting
bearing the above title. As in all the other pictures he has, also in
this, depicted all the important details of the occasion without
descending to such minute particularity that the painting would lose its
poetic character. The sad scene recalls vividly to the mind--in contrast
with the high hope and magnificent display of the expedition at its
start--the futility of human ambition.
The tone of the picture is heightened through the mingling of the pale
moonlight with the lurid reflection from the torches, and the coloring
altogether is such that it is in perfect harmony with the occasion.
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the subsequent fate of the remnant of
the expedition, except, perhaps, to say that the picture itself gains in
interest by contemplating that, after wandering through the pathless
forests, wading swamps, swimming rivers and fighting Indians all the
time, and deprived of their leader, and after four years of hardships
from the time that the expedition set out, those who were left made
their way to Mexico. In the meantime the beautiful wife of De Soto had
died brokenhearted, and never was there, all in all, a more tragic
ending to an expedition commenced amid so much pomp and glory and with
such sanguine expectations. His longed-for Eldorado was not found, and
yet De Soto, not unlike Columbus, gained immortality more surely than if
his expectations had been realized; for the Father of Waters, the
greatest river in the world, will always be associated with his name,
and the acquisition of the vast province of Louisiana by Spain led the
way for its subsequent transfer to the United States. It was on April
30, 1803, that through the negotiations conducted by James Monroe and
Robert Livingston the Province of Louisiana was purchased for the sum of
about $15,000,000 from France, which nation had prior thereto acquired
it from Spain.
In view of the chapters of history which a contemplation of this picture
recalls, it is of particular interest during this year (1904), when
through the magnificent Louisiana Purchase Exposition we are celebrating
the centennial anniversary of the acquisition by the United States of
the vast territory, which before De Soto and his followers the foot of
white man had never trod.
HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY
(_September 11, 1609_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
VI.
HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1609.[I]
Previous to his discovery of the Hudson River, Henry Hudson, an
Englishman, sometimes erroneously called Hendrick Hudson because the
ship in which he sailed was fitted out under the auspices of the Dutch
East India Company and the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce, had made three
voyages to find a northwest passage to China and India. To reach those
shores _via_ the Atlantic seems to have been the goal of all the early
discoverers, including Columbus and also De Soto, who, before his
Florida expedition, had explored the coast of Central America, on the
Pacific Ocean, in search of a passage through the American continent;
and even Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in the expectation that it
would lead on to the Pacific Ocean and thus to Asia. Hudson was not the
only Englishman who had received encouragement and assistance from
Holland when his own land had failed him, the same as did the Pilgrims
soon thereafter, when they sought refuge in that enlightened and
enterprising country.