Artist: Thomas Hovenden Place/date of birth: Dunmanway, County Cork, Ireland 1840 Place/date of death: Norristown, Pennsylvania 1895 Title: The Last Moments of John Brown Date of completion: ca. 1884 Materials: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 46 1/8 x 38 1/8 inches Collection: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Accession number: 1979.7.60 Introduction This painting represents a scene from 1859, just before the Civil War. The man with the long white beard is John Brown. John Brown was a fanatical abolitionist who claimed to be an agent of the Lord sent to punish those who favored slavery. Brown first came to public notice in the 1850s when Congress decreed that the settlers of the Kansas territory could decide for themselves whether the territory would be free or slave. Brown moved to Ossawatomie, Kansas with several of his sons in order to pursue the anti-slavery agenda. In 1856 an anti-slavery Kansas settler was killed by a pro-slavery group. In retaliation, Brown led a group of his associates into a pro-slavery camp and killed five men who were asleep. His actions intensified the troubles in Kansas, and the violence continued until 1861 when the territory was admitted to the Union as a free state. In October 1859, Brown and twenty-one associates attacked and captured a federal weapons warehouse in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Brown intended to take the weapons and lead a slave revolt throughout the countryside. For two days, Brown and his group held off federal forces with their guns. In the end, only Brown and six others survived. Brown was given a cursory trial and was convicted and hanged within six weeks. The event and the trial became a focus of intense interest across the country. Discussion This painting is a smaller reproduction of the original work, which is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The San Francisco version, which is more detailed, was probably made for engravers to copy and make into prints. The original version was painted nearly twenty years after Brown's death at the request of an art collector, Robbins Battell. Battell collaborated with Hovenden in the conception of the painting. It is based on a newspaper account of John Brown's trial which appeared in the New York Tribune. Later it was revealed that the newspaper account was entirely fictional, but it is uncertain if Hovenden and his patron knew that the newspaper account was not based on fact. Excerpt from the New York Tribune coverage of John Brown's hanging: On leaving the Jail, John Brown had on his face an expression of calmness and serenity characteristic of the patriot who is about to die with a living consciousness that he is laying his life down for the good of his fellow creatures...as he stepped out of door a black woman, with her little child in her arms, stood near his way. The twain were of the despised race for whose emancipation and elevation to the dignity of children of God he was about to lay down his life...he stopped for a moment in his course, stooped over, and with the tenderness of one whose love is as broad as the brotherhood of man, kissed [the child] affectionately. - New York Tribune, December 5, 1859, p. 8 The coverage of the trial in the Tribune inspired the poet John Greenleaf Whittier to include a few stanzas based on it in his poem "Brown of Ossawatomie," published December 22, 1859. John Brown of Ossawatomie spake on his dying day: John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die; The shadows of his stormy life that moment fell apart; Perish with him the folly that seeks through evil good! - John Greenleaf Whittier, excerpt from "Brown of Ossawatomie" (1859) Although John Brown is a hero in the history of abolition, his violent tactics were controversial. Most of his contemporary abolitionists worked for peaceful, legal means to abolish slavery. Regardless of his use of force, Brown was revered by both abolitionists and slaves alike; his unfaltering contempt for what he called "the peculiar institution" of slavery and his willingness to die for the cause made a strong statement for all to see and remember. Looking Closely Despite the fictional sources upon which the painting is based, Hovenden devoted painstaking attention to the architectural details of the courthouse setting and the clothing of his figures. He painted Brown's likeness based on a photograph. However, Hovenden created his own fiction in depicting the group of guards and spectators on the courthouse steps. Nearly every character adds something to our understanding of John Brown's story. For example, the guard at the left sternly eyes an African-American man advancing into the scene. The sheriff who holds the death warrant, looks down his nose at Brown. A young man at the right supports the African-American woman in a pose that echoes the way the woman carries the baby. An African-American woman at the left looks at Brown with a cautious stare, while the man below her expresses interest and excitement. Style The rifle and bayonet held by the soldier on the left create a vertical line which crosses with another vertical line created by John Brown's left arm, the death warrant, and the sheriff's tilted head. The intersection of these lines creates an "X" in the center of the canvas, drawing our eyes into the scene, and making us focus on the bright white death warrant. Artist Thomas Hovenden specialized, like many artists of his generation, in painting quiet scenes of home and family life. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hovenden was a Caucasian man who painted many images of African-Americans in domestic settings. His interest in this subject matter was probably connected to his politics; historians know that his wife's family was involved with the abolitionist cause. His studio had once been used as a stop along the Underground Railroad. Links to American History Curriculum
SLIDE 14
THE LAST MOMENTS OF JOHN BROWN
"I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in Slavery's pay.
But let some poor slave-mother whom I have striven to free,
With her children, from the gallows-stair put up a prayer for me!"
And lo! a poor slave mother with her little child pressed nigh.
Then the bold, blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face grew mild,
As he stooped beneath the jeering ranks and kissed the Negro's child!
And they who blamed the bloody hand forgave the loving heart.
That kiss, from all its guilty means redeemed the good intent,
And round the grisly fighter's hair the martyr's aureole bent!
Long live the generous purpose unstained with human blood!
Not the raid of midnight terror, but the thought which underlies;
Not the borderer's pride of daring, but the Christian's sacrifice!
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