The Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman - Essay Example

The Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman The main focus of the paper is on the analysis of the painting "The Baptism of Pocahontas". The paper starts with giving a brief biography of the artist of this painting, John Gadsby Chapman. After which the focus is brought on the painting, initially starting with the background of the painting and then how this painting came about. It analyzes everything in the painting, starting from its background to every figure present in it. The paper concludes by letting the reader know the impact this painting had on the society of that time and what place it keeps in today's world. Introduction John Gadsby Chapman created numerous history paintings based on the English resolution1 at Jamestown. Both "The Warning of Powhatan" and "The Crowning of Powhatan" were displayed at the National Academy of Design in New York in the year 1836. His Landing at Jamestown and The Crowning of Powhatan were later imprinted in the 1840s for accepted magazines. Chapman's companion Henry Alexander Wise had set up a decree in the United States House of Representatives in the year 1834 to structure a committee to choose American artists to complete the United States Capitol Rotunda cycle commenced by John Trumbull. On 28 February 1837 the Select Committee opted Robert Weir, John Vanderlyn, Henry Inman, and John G. Chapman to paint sight from American history. According to his agreement, Chapman entertained $10,000 in four payments. The completed painting, The Baptism of Pocahontas, was revealed on 30 November 1840 and was escorted by a leaflet elucidating the artist's approach to the theme and a concise history of Pocahontas as well as the Jamestown colony. John Gadsby Chapman sought to use the Jamestown legend as a paradigm of the confrontation between English settlers and Native Americans. His Baptism of, installed in the U.S. Capitol rotunda in 1840, combined historical mythmaking, concerns about the fate of the "noble savage," and respect for the Virginia heritage. Like Custis, the artist had deep roots in the Virginia soil; his father, Charles, came from an old Prince William County family; his maternal grandfather, John Gadsby, owned the famous Alexandria tavern that is now a Virginia landmark. Born near there in 1808, Chapman grew up with Mount Vernon and its powerful Washington legacy a few miles to the south and the newly constructed federal city taking shape upriver on the Potomac. Both were to have a profound effect on his future ambitions. During a brief and futile attempt to study law in Winchester, Virginia, he formed a close friendship with future Virginia congressman and Governor Henry Alexander Wise2. In 1828, the young artist toured Europe, there enriching his artistic education while making friends with such notables as James Fenimore Cooper, Samuel F.B. Morse, and the sculptor Horatio Greenough. Chapman might have taken advantage of such influential friends to help him launch his career in New York upon his return in 1831. Instead he chose to settle in Virginia, where he eked out scant living painting portraits. (Alexandria Gazette, 1832) During his youth, Chapman had witnessed the rebuilding of the Capitol after its destruction during the War of 1812 and had later watched John Trumbull install his four Revolutionary War paintings in the rotunda. Hoping one day to create a similar "national picture" for the Capitol, he began to contact influential politicians and exhibit his paintings around the District of Columbia3. By this time, Chapman had moved to New York City, where he was establishing a creditable reputation as a printmaker and illustrator. As soon as he returned home, the artist began painting episodes from the Pocahontas saga, the first being two small canvases -- The Coronation of Powhatan and The Warning of Pocahontas -- which he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1836. In 1837, he composed his own version of the famous rescue scene, Pocahontas Saving the Life of Captain John Smith and between 1839 and 1841; he painted Good Times in the New World, originally titled The Landing at Jamestown (or The Hope of Jamestown)4. It was by way of these compositions, each interpreting an aspect of the Jamestown saga that Chapman prepared himself to undertake his defining treatment of the tale, The Baptism of Pocahontas, destined for the walls of the U.S. Capitol. The Pocahontas paintings comprise a unique pictorial series and offer a rare glimpse into the process of visualizing the region's origin myth as conceived by a native son steeped in the state's culture and lore (Reynolds, James Kirke Paulding). Chapman's Self-Portrait, painted as his presentation portrait, or diploma picture, upon gaining full membership to the National Academy of Design in 1836, is evidence that he saw himself, as others did, as a modest, amiable man with few pretensions. His passport application of 1848 completes a description of the artist: 5-feet-5-inches tall with an oval face, a high broad forehead, brown eyes and hair, a short fringe beard from ear to ear, receding chin, and a florid complexion. He was further said to be a genial fellow of quiet humor who loved little jokes. His friend David Holmes Conrad affectionately referred to his "grey squirrel ways-and old waggish look out of his eyes."5 In the 1840s a new theme-the oppressive weight of debt-appears in his private writings. Chapman's paintings did not sell particularly well, even though many of them appeared in academy shows year after year. Portrait commissions took a back seat to illustration assignments. In addition, the artistic specialization he had chosen, a craft requiring him to bend for hours over small woodblocks or copperplates and to work with little or no margin for error, was calculated to wear down even the strongest constitution, and Chapman seems to have been especially prone to illness. He built a reputation as a perfectionist, but his high standards eventually took a toll on his health. With few exceptions, the artist's correspondence from the late 1830s on through to the last surviving letters is a melancholy record of his efforts to endure fatigue and illness (Pennington, 1989). In 1837 Chapman's life was further complicated when he received the opportunity every ambitious artist of his generation hoped, prayed, and campaigned for: a commission from the federal government. In 1834 his good friend Henry A. Wise had proposed to the House of Representatives that American artists be engaged to execute four mural-sized pictures to join the four canvases by John Trumbull already hanging in the rotunda of the Capitol and thereby complete what has come to be called the "shrine of American history" (Ades, 1989). Whatever the combination of circumstances that brought him the commission, Chapman realized he had received one of the highest honors America could pay one of its artists, and he dedicated himself completely to the assignment. He chose as his theme "The Baptism of Pocahontas," a subject consistent with his well-established pattern of depicting moments in the history of Virginia and one that would express the current conviction that the Native American would be saved from extinction only through conversion and assimilation. Significance of the painting, Baptism Pocahontas The Image appears here. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sep10.html Pocahontas (c.1595 - March 21, 1617) was an Algonquian Indian whose life has formed the basis of highly romanticized legends. Her real name was Matoaka: 'Pocahontas' was actually a childhood nickname referring to her frolicsome nature. She was the daughter of Powhatan, a Native American chief who controlled almost all of tidewater Virginia (called Tenakomakah at the time). While in England, Simon Van de Passe engraved Pocahontas's portrait on a copper plate. This engraving is the only portrait of Pocahontas made during her lifetime. With the Indian Removal Act underway, and the preparation for colonists to move westward, taking the land and assimilating the Indians, the story of Pocahontas converting to Christianity and accepting European culture struck a chord among 19th century Americans, as they battled with Natives who were defiantly resisting assimilation. To them, the success of Pocahontas's transformation validated the mission of the colonists. This can be seen in an 1840 painting by John Chapman called The Baptism of Pocahontas, which was hung in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol. A government pamphlet went into circulation entitled The Picture of the Baptism of Pocahontas, explaining the characters in the painting and congratulating the Jamestown settlers for introducing Christianity to the "heathen savages", thus doing more than to just exterminate the ancient proprietors of the soil, and usurp their possessions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas Pocahontas in this painting is portrayed in color white as she is baptized Rebecca by Anglican minister Alexander Whiteaker in Jamestown, Virginia; this occasion is supposed to have come about in the year 1613 or 1614. She kneels bounded by family members, together with her father, Chief Powhatan, as well as colonists. Her brother Nantequaus averted from the ceremony. The baptism took place before her marriage to Englishman John Rolfe, who stands at the back of her. Their unification is thought to be the first witnessed marriage between a European and a Native American. The sight represented the faith of Americans at the time that Native Americans should recognize Christianity as well as other European ways. John Gadsby Chapman's Baptism of Pocahontas provided interesting insights into the development of the origin myths during the early nineteenth century6. John Chapman was a southerner. Within the framework of the consensus there was plenty of room for political jostling. Southern interests were served by "The Baptism of Pocahontas". The story of Pocahontas was taken very seriously in the antebellum south, and Virginia, especially, staked her pride in its authenticity. The very location of the work at the heart of the nation's government reveals that during the first half of the nineteenth century, paintings depicting the Pilgrims and Pocahontas were considered important enough to deserve that place of honor. Pocahontas intervenes to prevent the cruel execution of John Smith -- this last being a counterpoint to "The Rescue". These contradictory images of the American Indian are both articulated and resolved in the impressive "Baptism of Pocahontas", which, by its reference to religious conversion of the uncivilized, depicts the archetypal "transition from nature to culture". The painting hangs prominently on the Rotunda wall. When the House of Representatives first discussed additional rotunda paintings in January 1828, congressmen from various parts of the country began arguing over favorite regional topics and debate became mired in partisan opinions. Finally, in 1836, the measure slipped through without debate. It named four artists -- Chapman, Weir, John Vanderlyn, and Henry Inman -- and asked them to restrict their choices of subject matter to "the discovery of America; the settlement of the United States; the history of the Revolution; or the adoption of the Constitution" (Ades, 1989). Chapman Baptism of Pocahontas makes it quite clear that Protestants conducted the civilizing process. Chapman pictured Pocahontas being baptized into the Church of England and thereby abandoning her pagan past for indoctrination into English religion and culture. The Indians she has spurned surround her, still wearing "savage" clothing, while she is completely covered in virginal white. Behind her stands John Rolfe, her future husband, who is helping her through the civilizing process; his presence at the ceremony assured their illustrious offspring that their families were sired by practicing Protestants (Brinkley, 1993). The message underlying the painting by Chapman was that of salvation. Pocahontas saved Virginia for the Anglican Church. In this way, Chapman embellished the Massachusetts and Virginia origin myths7 with suggestions that God willed the transportation of Protestantism to America. The significance of this image in its physical as well as historical background offers the key to understanding Pocahontas' petition as an American enlightening symbol. Why, in the year 1840, would legislators decide to put this image of a Native American woman in its pantheon of nationwide heroes The answer reclines in the national character of the time in which it was painted and first exhibit. Briefly, this is a gratifying action of the "Indian Problem." The painting symbolizes a later occasion from Pocahontas' life, one which was not frequently portrayed. Beyond a doubt the most accepted type of image was her saving Captain John Smith from putting to death, as seen in Antonio Capellano's relief placed transversely and above in the Rotunda. The religious substance of this work and what it says about associations with the Native Americans was evidently of greater concern to mid-19th century Americans. Three figures outline the central point of the picture. The minister, Pocahontas, along with John Rolfe seem covered in celestial light, a custom of European Renaissance painting demonstrating holy blessing. Pocahontas herself is dressed in a plain white gown, indicative of earlier symbol of the Virgin Mary with bowed head, plus the colors of her shawl, clothing, and hair are frequent in the renderings of the other two men, additionally connecting her with the Europeans as well as their culture. Her features are Anglicized and she is distinguished radically with the other natives, who emerge wearing brightly ornamented costumes. Most motivating are the figures of her uncle, Opechankanough, along with Nantequaus, the notorious soldier who would later break the tranquility brokered with Pocahontas' aid and murder the Jamestown resolution. Opechankanough sits in shade, miserably paying no attention to the ritual, while Nantequaus arrogantly averts, his plumed head-dress rising disobediently over the heads of those gathered. The difference carries an unmistakable judgment: Pocahontas is dignified in her receipt of English religion as well as culture, while the others are revealed to be savage ingrates for refusing the sight of clear grace before them. Matthew Baigell remarks on the ideological implications of Chapman's painting, claiming the painting is "especially interesting, even insidious....the painting portrays native Americans cooperating in the destruction of their own culture. If this painting has one subtext it is that white religion, namely Christianity, represents civilization and that native Americans become acceptable only by becoming Christian and accepting white values and customs" (Baigell, 1990). A government leaflet came out at the time of the painting's presentation in order to underline this point. The clarification first recognizes the figures in the painting, highlighting the chronological precision of the work. Categorizing Pocahontas as one of the brood of the forest who has been seized from the fangs of barbarous adoration, the leaflet applauded the Jamestown settlers for spreading the consent of Christianity among the heathen savages. They did more than to eliminate the ancient owner of the soil, and appropriate their belongings, the leaflet continues. Even as the work of art seems to rejoice the peaceful Christian conversion as well as assimilation of Native Americans, it also identifies the intractable heathens who refuse such an offer, bent on disagreement. In this way The Baptism of Pocahontas both emphasizes the haughty intentions of the Jamestown colonizers and denounces the obstinance of those who can be understood as dishonorable savages. It proliferate the thought of the gracious savage in Pocahontas, one who is said frequently in the literature of the 19th century to have personified Christian qualities even before she was rehabilitated. The painting also emerges to make a case for the cruel treatment of aggressive, unassimilated Indians. In March 1837 Chapman received the first installment of the $9,000 stipend from Congress, and by June 1837 he was in England searching for portraits of some of the principal actors in the drama, consulting historical records dealing with the Jamestown colony, and sketching costumes, armor, and furniture from the time of James I. After returning to New York City, he constructed a studio with the proper light and other conveniences for achieving a great picture and got to work. Shortly afterwards, however, he and his wife moved back to Washington. Instead of elevating Chapman to the front rank of America's history painters and opening up a new avenue for his career, the picture represented something of a dead end for him. He had never before attempted a canvas so large, and he would never get the chance to do so again. Typical of the quality of his work during this period are the etched illustrations he produced for The Poets of America (1840)8. Although the delicate and cherubic woodsman drawn for A. B. Street's "The Settler" seems an unlikely frontiersman, the tree trunk and foliage, drawn with Chapman's characteristically wirey, densely packed, and nervous lines, convincingly convey texture and mass (Stegner, 1992). Even though his experience with The Baptism of Pocahontas had been far from a critical and financial success, it had nevertheless clearly reminded him of the distinction between what art could be when practiced at its highest level and the low state it could sink to when he was forced by grim necessity to hire out his talents on a piecework basis to demanding publishers. He wanted to be a painter, but instead he found himself to be the most sought-after illustrator in America in the early 1840s. And while the publishers allowed him to pay his bills, they tortured his craftsman's conscience with their constant demands for speed and volume rather than beauty and perfection. However unconsciously, here Chapman reveals the heart of his problem with the helter-skelter pace of commerce in New York City: a Southerner, he was imbued with his region's deep-seated belief that life and work should be pursued at a slower and more human pace, and he must have bitterly resented the expectation that he, a gentleman from Virginia, should be expected to perform at the commands of impatient employers. Perhaps he even thought, as some of his fellow Southerners did, that the North was populated only by the "venal, corrupt, covetous, mean and selfish."9 The Chapman family disintegrated in the 1870s. Conrad meandered in Mexico and France, John Linton (known as Jack) came back to New York City in the year 1878, Elizabeth Chapman died in Rome in the year 1874, and John G. Chapman became reliant on support from his fellow citizens. In the year 1884 Chapman, in deprived health, revisited the United States. He visited Conrad in Mexico, but survived the rest of his life with Jack in Brooklyn. John Gadsby Chapman passed away in the year 1889 and was buried in a pauper's grave. Notes 1. English Resolution was formed in the year 1632, and was submitted to the Parliament at the time of Puritan settlement in Playmouth bay. It was mainly concerned with Women's rights. 2. Georgia S. Chamberlain, "John Gadsby Chapman: A Reappraisal," 568; Anna Wells Rutledge, The Annual Exhibition Records of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 18071870, 47; National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860, 74ff. 3. Chamberlain, "Chapman, Painter of Virginia," 379. The series included The Birthplace of Washington; A View from the Family Mansion, Fredericksburg; The Plains at Yorktown; A View of Mt. Vernon; Washington's Bedroom; The Tomb of Washington; A View of Yorktown; and The House Where the Surrender Was Signed. All paintings were sold by the Old Print Shop in New York City to the late Chauncey Stillman in 1958 and remain a part of his estate.) 4. Campbell, John Gadsby Chapman, 18; Georgia S. Chamberlain, Studies on John Gadsby Chapman, American Artist, 17-18. 5. Thomas S. Cummings, Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design, 148, 175, 355; John H. Gourlie, The Origin and History of "The Century," 5-10. 6. Pierre Nora, "Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mmoire," trans. Marc Roudebush, Representations 26(Spring 1989):8-9.. 7. Subsequent to the American Revolution, people of the United States started to write a history of their new country starting with the first English settlements, Jamestown as well as Plymouth. Virginians overstated the tale of Jamestown and Pocahontas, the Indian woman who, by accepted accounts, saved the colony. Likewise, New Englanders blessed the Pilgrims and their legendary first step on Plymouth Rock. 8. The first significant history of American poetry, Stedman's most imperative work, remains a penetrating and prominent study of the type. 9. Thomas S. Cummings, Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design, 148, 175, 355; John H. Gourlie, The Origin and History of "The Century," 5-10. 10. Quoted in Campbell, John Gadsby Chapman, 7; David Holmes Conrad to William Kemble, Winchester, Virginia, November 24, 1859, quoted in ibid. 11. Frank Weitenkampf, American Graphic Art, 145. See also W. J. Linton, The History of Wood-Engraving in America, 12-14; Edward F Heite, "Painter of the Old Dominion," 17; LSC Memoir, 1. Bibliography Alexandria Gazette, November 28, 1832 Larry J. Reynolds, James Kirke Paulding, 62. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sep10.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas Baigell, Matthew, 1990. "Territory, Race, Religion: Images of Manifest Destiny," Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Summer/Fall, 3-19. Chapman, John Gadsby. The picture of the baptism of Pocahontas painted by order of Congress, for the rotundo of the Capitol, Washington: Peter Force, 1840. Campbell, John Gadsby Chapman, 18; Georgia S. Chamberlain, Studies on John Gadsby Chapman, American Artist, 17-18. Frank Weitenkampf, American Graphic Art, 145. See also W. J. Linton, The History of Wood-Engraving in America, 12-14; Edward F Heite, "Painter of the Old Dominion," 17; LSC Memoir, 1. Thomas S. Cummings, Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design, 148, 175, 355; John H. Gourlie, The Origin and History of "The Century," 5-10. Ades, Dawn, 1989. Art in Latin America: The Moderns, 1820-1980. New Haven: Yale University Press. Brinkley, Alan, 1993. The Unfinished Nation. New York: Knopf. Heite, Edward F, 1968. "Painter of the Old Dominion." Virginia Cavalcade. Jones, Ron, 1986. The American Connection. Merseyside: Ron Jones. Robinson, William B. American Forts: Architectural Form and Function. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977. Pennington, Estill Curtis, 1989. Look Away: Reality and Sentiment in Southern Art. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, ca. Stegner, Wallace, 1992. Angle of Repose. New York: Penguin Books. Read More