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Papers by Jessica Skwire Routhier
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
Maine Policy Review, 2015
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, 2020
Despite the Talbot Wilson notebook’s central importance to Whitman scholarship, scholars have lon... more Despite the Talbot Wilson notebook’s central importance to Whitman scholarship, scholars have long neglected the person for whom the volume is named. Landscape painter and Brooklynite Jesse Talbot was one of Whitman’s closest companions in the years he was conceptualizing what would become Leaves of Grass. Whitman wrote about and promoted Talbot’s paintings in at least six newspaper and journal articles in the 1850s, and he also owned one: Christian at the Cross, a scene from The Pilgrim’s Progress, a version of which was recently rediscovered in a private American collection.
My paper will outline how Talbot began his career as a leader in New York religious organizations and then, in mid-life, became an acclaimed painter of overtly and implicitly allegorical American landscapes, catching the attention of the young Whitman. As a journalist, Whitman himself was a kind of evangelist for a specific vision of American arts and culture, journeying toward the democratic vista first fully articulated in Leaves of Grass. My paper argues that the personal and professional relationship between Talbot and Whitman was crucial for this transition and that the theme of pilgrimage, as explored by Talbot, resonates in Whitman’s writings—that, in fact, both artists, in different media, used related imagery and punning motifs in the defining works that came out of their New York years. My paper draws on new primary evidence about Talbot and Whitman’s promotion of him to demonstrate how Whitman’s critical response to Talbot’s work shaped both men’s careers—for better and for worse.
A mission to serve the common good has characterized Maine cultural life since the earliest years... more A mission to serve the common good has characterized Maine cultural life since the earliest years of the nineteenth century. Collaborative institutions and initiatives within the arts and cultural community have developed and evolved in service of that goal. From professional organizations like the Maine Charitable Mechanics, Union of Maine Visual Artists, and Maine Archives and Museums; to exhibition initiatives like the Maine biennials, the Maine Art Museum Trail, and the “Projects” of the Maine Curators’ Forum; to collections-based projects like Maine Memory Network and the Langlais Art Trail, this article demonstrates how the state’s museums, historical societies, and other arts and cultural organizations work collaboratively and independently at the same time, to their own mutual benefit as well as that of the people of Maine.
"Maine Women Pioneers III" (Portland, Me.: University of New England Art Gallery in association with the Center for Ethics in Action, 2013), 2013
What does it mean to be a leader? This section of the "Maine Women Pioneers III" exhibition--name... more What does it mean to be a leader? This section of the "Maine Women Pioneers III" exhibition--named after Maine's state motto, "Dirigo," Latin for "I Lead"--attempts to grapple with that question. Worded another way, what does it mean to be a "Woman Pioneer" in the arts? For after all, "leading" is the distinguishing characteristic of a pioneer, defined variously as "one who ventures into unknown territory" or "one who opens up new areas of thought or development." This essay explores those issues in the context of 20th-century feminist art history and through the work of Maine artists Josefina Auslender, Noriko Sakanishi, Diane Bowie Zaitlin, Denise Froehlich, Melonie Bennett, Katherine Bradford, Mary Hart, Elizabeth Cashin McMillan, Allison Cooke Brown, Katherine Cobey, Grace DeGennaro, Barbara Sullivan, Susan Amons, Janice Kasper, Keily Anderson-Staley, Dozier Bell, MEggan Gould, and Celeste Roberge.
Essay accompanying an exhibition of new work by Maine/Florida artist Celeste Roberge at the Crisp... more Essay accompanying an exhibition of new work by Maine/Florida artist Celeste Roberge at the Crisp-Ellert Museum of Art, Flagler Collage, St. Augustine, in 2014.
Books by Jessica Skwire Routhier
University Press of New England, 2015
The Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress is an extraordinary 8-foot by 800-foot painting that wa... more The Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress is an extraordinary 8-foot by 800-foot painting that was created in 1851 and thought lost for a full century. Rediscovered in 1996 and fully restored in 2012, it illustrates John Bunyan’s iconic book The Pilgrim’s Progress—first published in 1678 and in print continuously since then—a heart-stopping allegory of trial and faith in which the hero, Christian, battles giants, monsters, tricksters, and his own weaknesses to reach the Celestial City. Moving panoramas were a mid-nineteenth-century precursor to the motion picture, massive canvases that were scrolled across a stage and accompanied by a lecturer and music. One of only a handful that survive today, the Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress was one of the most popular and important moving panoramas of its day, with designs by rising luminaries of the Hudson River School of American landscape painting: Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Cropsey, Daniel Huntington, and others. Scholars and fans of theater and film, panoramas, American art, religious studies, literature, and The Pilgrim’s Progress itself will value this beautifully illustrated volume.
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
Maine Policy Review, 2015
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, 2020
Despite the Talbot Wilson notebook’s central importance to Whitman scholarship, scholars have lon... more Despite the Talbot Wilson notebook’s central importance to Whitman scholarship, scholars have long neglected the person for whom the volume is named. Landscape painter and Brooklynite Jesse Talbot was one of Whitman’s closest companions in the years he was conceptualizing what would become Leaves of Grass. Whitman wrote about and promoted Talbot’s paintings in at least six newspaper and journal articles in the 1850s, and he also owned one: Christian at the Cross, a scene from The Pilgrim’s Progress, a version of which was recently rediscovered in a private American collection.
My paper will outline how Talbot began his career as a leader in New York religious organizations and then, in mid-life, became an acclaimed painter of overtly and implicitly allegorical American landscapes, catching the attention of the young Whitman. As a journalist, Whitman himself was a kind of evangelist for a specific vision of American arts and culture, journeying toward the democratic vista first fully articulated in Leaves of Grass. My paper argues that the personal and professional relationship between Talbot and Whitman was crucial for this transition and that the theme of pilgrimage, as explored by Talbot, resonates in Whitman’s writings—that, in fact, both artists, in different media, used related imagery and punning motifs in the defining works that came out of their New York years. My paper draws on new primary evidence about Talbot and Whitman’s promotion of him to demonstrate how Whitman’s critical response to Talbot’s work shaped both men’s careers—for better and for worse.
A mission to serve the common good has characterized Maine cultural life since the earliest years... more A mission to serve the common good has characterized Maine cultural life since the earliest years of the nineteenth century. Collaborative institutions and initiatives within the arts and cultural community have developed and evolved in service of that goal. From professional organizations like the Maine Charitable Mechanics, Union of Maine Visual Artists, and Maine Archives and Museums; to exhibition initiatives like the Maine biennials, the Maine Art Museum Trail, and the “Projects” of the Maine Curators’ Forum; to collections-based projects like Maine Memory Network and the Langlais Art Trail, this article demonstrates how the state’s museums, historical societies, and other arts and cultural organizations work collaboratively and independently at the same time, to their own mutual benefit as well as that of the people of Maine.
"Maine Women Pioneers III" (Portland, Me.: University of New England Art Gallery in association with the Center for Ethics in Action, 2013), 2013
What does it mean to be a leader? This section of the "Maine Women Pioneers III" exhibition--name... more What does it mean to be a leader? This section of the "Maine Women Pioneers III" exhibition--named after Maine's state motto, "Dirigo," Latin for "I Lead"--attempts to grapple with that question. Worded another way, what does it mean to be a "Woman Pioneer" in the arts? For after all, "leading" is the distinguishing characteristic of a pioneer, defined variously as "one who ventures into unknown territory" or "one who opens up new areas of thought or development." This essay explores those issues in the context of 20th-century feminist art history and through the work of Maine artists Josefina Auslender, Noriko Sakanishi, Diane Bowie Zaitlin, Denise Froehlich, Melonie Bennett, Katherine Bradford, Mary Hart, Elizabeth Cashin McMillan, Allison Cooke Brown, Katherine Cobey, Grace DeGennaro, Barbara Sullivan, Susan Amons, Janice Kasper, Keily Anderson-Staley, Dozier Bell, MEggan Gould, and Celeste Roberge.
Essay accompanying an exhibition of new work by Maine/Florida artist Celeste Roberge at the Crisp... more Essay accompanying an exhibition of new work by Maine/Florida artist Celeste Roberge at the Crisp-Ellert Museum of Art, Flagler Collage, St. Augustine, in 2014.
University Press of New England, 2015
The Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress is an extraordinary 8-foot by 800-foot painting that wa... more The Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress is an extraordinary 8-foot by 800-foot painting that was created in 1851 and thought lost for a full century. Rediscovered in 1996 and fully restored in 2012, it illustrates John Bunyan’s iconic book The Pilgrim’s Progress—first published in 1678 and in print continuously since then—a heart-stopping allegory of trial and faith in which the hero, Christian, battles giants, monsters, tricksters, and his own weaknesses to reach the Celestial City. Moving panoramas were a mid-nineteenth-century precursor to the motion picture, massive canvases that were scrolled across a stage and accompanied by a lecturer and music. One of only a handful that survive today, the Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress was one of the most popular and important moving panoramas of its day, with designs by rising luminaries of the Hudson River School of American landscape painting: Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Cropsey, Daniel Huntington, and others. Scholars and fans of theater and film, panoramas, American art, religious studies, literature, and The Pilgrim’s Progress itself will value this beautifully illustrated volume.