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Catalog Data

Artist:
Ole Peter Hansen Balling, 13 Apr 1823 - 1 May 1906  Search this
Sitter:
John Brown, 9 May 1800 - 2 Dec 1859  Search this
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Stretcher: 76.5 x 64.5 x 3.8cm (30 1/8 x 25 3/8 x 1 1/2")
Frame: 109.2 x 96.5 x 12.7cm (43 x 38 x 5")
Type:
Painting
Date:
1872
Exhibition Label:
Born Torrington, Connecticut
Amid the festering hostilities between North and South in the 1850s, John Brown’s zealous opposition to slavery grew. After leading retaliatory strikes against proslavery mobs in Kansas in 1856, he began making plans for the 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Brown intended to commandeer firearms and initiate a slave rebellion. The plan failed, and Brown was captured, tried, and hanged. His insurrection found favor among many Northerners sympathetic to his cause. In the South, however, Brown’s actions signaled that slaveholding states must either face diminished power against an increasingly abolitionist North or sever ties with the United States.
This portrait of a fiery Brown cloaked in a U.S. Army blanket is an imaginative interpretation of an engraving published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in 1859. Through the dark shadows that dominate the painting’s lower right, it is possible to discern manacles binding Brown’s wrists.
Nacido en Torrington, Connecticut
La oposición ferviente de John Brown a la esclavitud creció en medio de las hostilidades entre el norte y el sur en la década de 1850. Tras encabezar choques con las turbas proesclavistas en Kansas en 1856, Brown empezó a planear el asalto de 1859 al arsenal federal en Harpers Ferry, Virginia Occidental, con el fin de obtener armas para iniciar una revuelta de esclavos. El plan fracasó y Brown fue capturado, enjuiciado y ahorcado. Su insurrección tuvo el favor de muchos norteños. En el sur, sus actos señalaron que los estados esclavistas debían resignarse a perder poder ante un norte cada vez más abolicionista o tendrían que romper sus lazos con Estados Unidos.
Este retrato de un Brown fiero, envuelto en una manta del ejército de EE.UU., es una interpretación imaginativa de un grabado publicado en Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper en 1859. Entre las sombras que dominan el área derecha inferior, pueden entreverse las esposas que restringen a Brown.
Provenance:
James Sutton, New York and Tacoma; estate sold at auction, purchased by Ferry Museum [predecessor of Tacoma Historical Museum, Washington State Historical Society], Tacoma; purchased 1974 NPG
Topic:
Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Mustache  Search this
Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Beard  Search this
John Brown: Male  Search this
John Brown: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Abolitionist  Search this
Portrait  Search this
Credit Line:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Object number:
NPG.74.2
Restrictions & Rights:
CC0
See more items in:
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Exhibition:
Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900
On View:
NPG, East Gallery 110a
Data Source:
National Portrait Gallery
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4f6095347-e28a-4eaa-a71e-5cf674c7a33e
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:npg_NPG.74.2