"War News from Mexico and The Chelsea Pensioners: Richard Caton Woodville and the Democratized Reception of War News," co-written with the Americanist Jason Weems, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 85 (2022) 520-549. (original) (raw)

Abstract

Richard Caton Woodville’s 1848 painting War News from Mexico made while a student at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, is one of the most iconic American images from before the Civil War (1861-1865). Traditionally, it has been seen as little more than a genre painting of American life by the noted genre painter, an idealized depiction of the American "middling sort" (an extended, upwardly mobile version of the middle class today). But what has gone completely unnoticed is that Woodville systematically adapted every single figure and the basic composition from an even better known painting from a more noted genre painter to produce his work, the 1822 Chelsea Pensioners (receiving war news from Waterloo) by David Wilkie. What has also gone unnoticed is that War News from Mexico is not at all an idealized depiction of the American middling sort, but rather a rigorous critique of explosive social and political situation in the United States on the verge of the American Civil War. Whereas Chelsea presents an idealized depiction of the British "common sort," one that acts to "reinforce an hierarchical status quo," according to the British scholar David H. Solkin, War News, perhaps because of Woodville's perspective from the Revolutions of 1848 in Germany, presents a critical, even edgy view of American democracy and its middling sort. If Woodville's adaptation of Chelsea for an American context (reception of the war news of the Mexican-American War) meant Americanizing it, Americanizing it meant "democratizing" it. However, in general, far from simply being a question of "celebrating" the right of each adult white male to express his own political opinion through the democratic process, War News presents American democracy in all of its complexity with respect to the crossroads at which the nation found itself as a result of the imminent impact of the Mexican-American War (the admission of new Southern states) on that inherent contradiction within American democracy: slavery. Specifically with regard to Chelsea, the democratization of War News meant a replacement of the British common sort (none of whom in Chelsea would have had the right to vote until 1918) with the American middling sort (all of whom, except the African American and the woman, would have had the right to vote in national elections by the time of War News). It meant the distinct absence of a universal affirmation of the war news that is the ostensible subject of the image, completely contrary to its source, Chelsea. And it meant a representation that was not only not idealizing like Chelsea but that was explicitly self-critical, from the implication of an impending national crisis brought about by a failure of true democratic ideals to unsophisticated behavior and tobacco juice spit out on the floor. It was an unsettling tale for those of Woodville's contemporaries who cared to read closely, one in which serious challenges to American democracy--old political ideals versus new expansionism, human rights versus states' rights, freedom versus slavery--were not hidden under the glad tidings of victorious war news from afar. Rather, brought to a head by the Mexican-American War, these smoldering political issues were deftly phrased in the tale told by Woodville of the democratized reception of war news from Mexico, a tale whose conclusion could be contemplated by understanding contemporaries only with the greatest foreboding.

Figures (20)

1 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, 1848, oil on canvas, 68.6 x 63.5 cm. Bentonville, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, acc. no. 2010.74

1 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, 1848, oil on canvas, 68.6 x 63.5 cm. Bentonville, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, acc. no. 2010.74

2 David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners, 1822, oil on canvas, 97 x 158 cm. London, Apsley House

2 David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners, 1822, oil on canvas, 97 x 158 cm. London, Apsley House

3 John Burnet after David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners, 1831, engraving, 55 x 77.5 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

3 John Burnet after David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners, 1831, engraving, 55 x 77.5 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

4 Advertisement (detail) for the reproductive engraving of The Chelsea Pensioners by John Burnet, 1831, etching, 84.4x54cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Exactly how Woodville came to know The Chelsea Pensioners is unclear, but shortly after he arrived in Dusseldorf from Baltimore to study at the Kunstakademie (sometime in 1845), the Mex- ican-American War broke out (25 April 1846 to 2 February 1848) to much approbation at home in the United States but also significant opposition by those who saw it as unwarranted and imperi- alistic.’ At the same time, Europe was becoming electrified by a surge of political idealism, culmi- nating in the 1848 Revolutions, including a great deal of liberal and German unification activity in Diisseldorf in general and at the Kunstakad- emie in particular, especially on the part of the German-American painter Emanuel Leutze.’ Nhether Woodville made an unrecorded trip to London sometime from 1845 to 1847 in which he saw The Chelsea Pensioners in Apsley House Whatever Woodville’s exact experience of The Chelsea Pensioners, the general composition of War News was borrowed directly from Wilkie’s work, though Woodville abbreviated and more

4 Advertisement (detail) for the reproductive engraving of The Chelsea Pensioners by John Burnet, 1831, etching, 84.4x54cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Exactly how Woodville came to know The Chelsea Pensioners is unclear, but shortly after he arrived in Dusseldorf from Baltimore to study at the Kunstakademie (sometime in 1845), the Mex- ican-American War broke out (25 April 1846 to 2 February 1848) to much approbation at home in the United States but also significant opposition by those who saw it as unwarranted and imperi- alistic.’ At the same time, Europe was becoming electrified by a surge of political idealism, culmi- nating in the 1848 Revolutions, including a great deal of liberal and German unification activity in Diisseldorf in general and at the Kunstakad- emie in particular, especially on the part of the German-American painter Emanuel Leutze.’ Nhether Woodville made an unrecorded trip to London sometime from 1845 to 1847 in which he saw The Chelsea Pensioners in Apsley House Whatever Woodville’s exact experience of The Chelsea Pensioners, the general composition of War News was borrowed directly from Wilkie’s work, though Woodville abbreviated and more

5 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico (fig. 1), with figures numbered in correspondence with The Chelsea Pensioners by David Wilkie strongly centralized it, repeating the theme of the central standing figure reading the war news surrounded by other standing figures, some of whom crowd around him to read over his shoulder, and with seated figures in the wings - genre details, just as in his earlier works, but

5 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico (fig. 1), with figures numbered in correspondence with The Chelsea Pensioners by David Wilkie strongly centralized it, repeating the theme of the central standing figure reading the war news surrounded by other standing figures, some of whom crowd around him to read over his shoulder, and with seated figures in the wings - genre details, just as in his earlier works, but

6 David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners (fig. 2), with figures numbered in correspondence with War News from Mexico by Richard Caton Woodville

6 David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners (fig. 2), with figures numbered in correspondence with War News from Mexico by Richard Caton Woodville

7 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig.1 (“AMERICAN HOTEL” sign) In the first place, at one point in the middle of the process of painting, Woodville changed the title on the sign hanging in the porch gable from “AMERICAN TAVERN” to “AMERI-

7 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig.1 (“AMERICAN HOTEL” sign) In the first place, at one point in the middle of the process of painting, Woodville changed the title on the sign hanging in the porch gable from “AMERICAN TAVERN” to “AMERI-

8 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (“BAR ROOM” sign)

8 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (“BAR ROOM” sign)

1o Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (plant, penknife, notch, shavings)

1o Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (plant, penknife, notch, shavings)

11 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (cuffs of pants of newspaper reader, general debris, However, the adapted figure now no longer con- veys the crisp impression of its military source but rather, despite being well enough dressed - in stirrup pants, a jacket with purposefully tightly fitting sleeves, shirt cuffs carefully folded over those of the jacket, and with jacket, pants, hat, and tie all carefully matching in color - the character seems a bit uncouth. Holding a pen- knife (not a match as is sometimes said, the cur- vature of the blade being clearly visible)*° with which he has cut the capped mouth end of his cigarillo off, he is the apparent source of a profu- sion of waste and filth on the porch and porch step at his feet: burnt matches, burn marks from matches, two cigarillo butts and their ashes, what seem to be two cut ends from the cigarillos, carelessly spit out tobacco juice (possibly from an earlier guest), and a clutter of what appears to be small wood chips - just the size that his penknife would make - directly below a series of aimless gouges in the wooden pillar next to him, silently pointing to him as the likely culprit (figs. 10-11). Turning his attention away from all these earthly delights, the man looks up at the reader with a kind of surprise or, perhaps bet- ter, newfound understanding that lies inher- ent in the news. That is, as a constituent of the American Hotel, he now sees the implicit op- portunity for himself in these events. The war compositionally than the reader in The Chelsea Pensioners and occupying a far greater propor- tion of the painting - now stands with head jut- ting forward, mouth gaping, elbows awkwardly extended, and legs spread apart in a ludicrously ungainly manner (fig.5, no.1). The reader’s ab- sence of a coat but presence of a hat suggests that he does not work at the hotel but is a visi- tor, probably a regular visitor since - aside from having taken his coat off - the visual narrative implies that he has just received the newspaper through the post office at which he apparently has a postal address and so is a local, not tran- sient, visitor. The dirty cuffs of his pants relative to those of the others on the porch (fig. 11) sug- gest an amount of walking on unpaved surfaces inconsistent with full-time indoor work, pre- sumably without the aid of a horse or carriage, possibly implying his social standing relative to the others, who nevertheless give the impression of quite readily accepting his place in announc- ing this news of national importance to the at least slightly heterogeneous audience. All of this is strongly at conceptual odds with his counter- part in The Chelsea Pensioners. Trt... CC... 2°. aL . 1 nee 1. fe flo ee lle lie Ad 8 1 1 tor, probably a regular visitor since — aside from

11 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (cuffs of pants of newspaper reader, general debris, However, the adapted figure now no longer con- veys the crisp impression of its military source but rather, despite being well enough dressed - in stirrup pants, a jacket with purposefully tightly fitting sleeves, shirt cuffs carefully folded over those of the jacket, and with jacket, pants, hat, and tie all carefully matching in color - the character seems a bit uncouth. Holding a pen- knife (not a match as is sometimes said, the cur- vature of the blade being clearly visible)*° with which he has cut the capped mouth end of his cigarillo off, he is the apparent source of a profu- sion of waste and filth on the porch and porch step at his feet: burnt matches, burn marks from matches, two cigarillo butts and their ashes, what seem to be two cut ends from the cigarillos, carelessly spit out tobacco juice (possibly from an earlier guest), and a clutter of what appears to be small wood chips - just the size that his penknife would make - directly below a series of aimless gouges in the wooden pillar next to him, silently pointing to him as the likely culprit (figs. 10-11). Turning his attention away from all these earthly delights, the man looks up at the reader with a kind of surprise or, perhaps bet- ter, newfound understanding that lies inher- ent in the news. That is, as a constituent of the American Hotel, he now sees the implicit op- portunity for himself in these events. The war compositionally than the reader in The Chelsea Pensioners and occupying a far greater propor- tion of the painting - now stands with head jut- ting forward, mouth gaping, elbows awkwardly extended, and legs spread apart in a ludicrously ungainly manner (fig.5, no.1). The reader’s ab- sence of a coat but presence of a hat suggests that he does not work at the hotel but is a visi- tor, probably a regular visitor since - aside from having taken his coat off - the visual narrative implies that he has just received the newspaper through the post office at which he apparently has a postal address and so is a local, not tran- sient, visitor. The dirty cuffs of his pants relative to those of the others on the porch (fig. 11) sug- gest an amount of walking on unpaved surfaces inconsistent with full-time indoor work, pre- sumably without the aid of a horse or carriage, possibly implying his social standing relative to the others, who nevertheless give the impression of quite readily accepting his place in announc- ing this news of national importance to the at least slightly heterogeneous audience. All of this is strongly at conceptual odds with his counter- part in The Chelsea Pensioners. Trt... CC... 2°. aL . 1 nee 1. fe flo ee lle lie Ad 8 1 1 tor, probably a regular visitor since — aside from

12 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (man knocking on wood); a: infrared detail; b: photographic detail ant, directing his clearly forceful personality in one direction (toward the courier who has just brought the paper) as he strongly reaches out physically in the other (in the general direc- tion of the paper in the hands of the reader), the man listening to the war news on the porch of the American Hotel could not be more differ- ent — but this is a difference that seems to have come about with what can only have been a certain amount of thought on Woodville’s part. Infrared imaging shows that Woodville origi- nally had the man’s right arm extended up- ward, waving his hat in celebration, and had his mouth open, cheering (fig. 12a): more or less a mirror image of the man in the corresponding position on the other side of the reader in War News (fig. 5, no. 5). But, at some point during the process of painting, just as he changed the title on the sign in the gable, he just as radically changed this figure, revising the gesture made by his right arm into one of rapping his knuck- les on the back post of the porch - “knocking on wood” to ward off misfortune (fig. 12b).* His news of spring 1847 changed nothing about the popular, economic, or social situation of Texas from when it entered the Union as a slave state on 29 December 1845. And so the earnest ex- pression and upward glance of this otherwise unimpressive member of the middling sort seem to have been meant to refer to the general factor of traditional individual opportunity that many would find in the westward expansion that had become more or less a constant of American life but which was radically expanding now through the admission of Texas into the Union - even if it was an admission so unpopular that it passed in the Senate by only two votes (twenty-seven to twenty-five, the change of one vote to the nega- tive would have resulted in a tie of twenty-six to twenty-six and so non-admission).”

12 Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (man knocking on wood); a: infrared detail; b: photographic detail ant, directing his clearly forceful personality in one direction (toward the courier who has just brought the paper) as he strongly reaches out physically in the other (in the general direc- tion of the paper in the hands of the reader), the man listening to the war news on the porch of the American Hotel could not be more differ- ent — but this is a difference that seems to have come about with what can only have been a certain amount of thought on Woodville’s part. Infrared imaging shows that Woodville origi- nally had the man’s right arm extended up- ward, waving his hat in celebration, and had his mouth open, cheering (fig. 12a): more or less a mirror image of the man in the corresponding position on the other side of the reader in War News (fig. 5, no. 5). But, at some point during the process of painting, just as he changed the title on the sign in the gable, he just as radically changed this figure, revising the gesture made by his right arm into one of rapping his knuck- les on the back post of the porch - “knocking on wood” to ward off misfortune (fig. 12b).* His news of spring 1847 changed nothing about the popular, economic, or social situation of Texas from when it entered the Union as a slave state on 29 December 1845. And so the earnest ex- pression and upward glance of this otherwise unimpressive member of the middling sort seem to have been meant to refer to the general factor of traditional individual opportunity that many would find in the westward expansion that had become more or less a constant of American life but which was radically expanding now through the admission of Texas into the Union - even if it was an admission so unpopular that it passed in the Senate by only two votes (twenty-seven to twenty-five, the change of one vote to the nega- tive would have resulted in a tie of twenty-six to twenty-six and so non-admission).”

13 Richard Caton Woodville, Old ’76 and Young ‘48, 1849, oil on canvas, 53.6 x 68.3 cm. Baltimore, Walters Art Museum dignified manner, fine (if outdated) dress, and slightly elaborate walking stick, and implied in the younger by the green-tinted glasses he wears, something often seen as a sign of affectation at the time, this same affectation being a read- ing that might be extended to the umbrella he carries in contrast to the rest of the group, and perhaps even to his somewhat contrived hat.4 In this pairing, Woodville further plays with a variation of a favorite figure type of his, Old 76, one that he employed in his Soldier’s Experi- ence of 1847 and in Old 76 and Young 48 of 1849, both Mexican-American War themed paintings (fig. 13).° The potential for content here is primar- ily derived from the face of the venerable older man, which shows a certain strain, contrary, for example, to the cheering young man a few feet away. Does he react this way because he is hard of hearing or (as is commonly said) because he disapproves of what he has just heard, one more in a series of events that many in the country saw as opposed to the political ideals that per- meated the nation when he himself presumably took up arms in its foundation?*® Are the ear- lier ideals of the revolution now as out of date as the elderly gentleman’s clothing? Visually, the question remains unresolved, contributing to a certain narrative complexity that the contempo- rary American viewer would have been expected to recognize. At the same time, if the relatively younger man speaking into his ear may be un- derstood as an adult son, as the difference in age

13 Richard Caton Woodville, Old ’76 and Young ‘48, 1849, oil on canvas, 53.6 x 68.3 cm. Baltimore, Walters Art Museum dignified manner, fine (if outdated) dress, and slightly elaborate walking stick, and implied in the younger by the green-tinted glasses he wears, something often seen as a sign of affectation at the time, this same affectation being a read- ing that might be extended to the umbrella he carries in contrast to the rest of the group, and perhaps even to his somewhat contrived hat.4 In this pairing, Woodville further plays with a variation of a favorite figure type of his, Old 76, one that he employed in his Soldier’s Experi- ence of 1847 and in Old 76 and Young 48 of 1849, both Mexican-American War themed paintings (fig. 13).° The potential for content here is primar- ily derived from the face of the venerable older man, which shows a certain strain, contrary, for example, to the cheering young man a few feet away. Does he react this way because he is hard of hearing or (as is commonly said) because he disapproves of what he has just heard, one more in a series of events that many in the country saw as opposed to the political ideals that per- meated the nation when he himself presumably took up arms in its foundation?*® Are the ear- lier ideals of the revolution now as out of date as the elderly gentleman’s clothing? Visually, the question remains unresolved, contributing to a certain narrative complexity that the contempo- rary American viewer would have been expected to recognize. At the same time, if the relatively younger man speaking into his ear may be un- derstood as an adult son, as the difference in age

14a Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (shield) another to a shield with some form of the Stars and Stripes on it — is, of course, the generic icon- ographical type that has acted as the source for more specific devices such as the Great Seal of the United States that appears on the American one-dollar bill and U.S. passport, in the Seal of the President of the United States, and so on.“ Just as Wilkie’s tavern signs in The Chelsea Pen- sioners do more than simply contribute to the es- tablishment of the setting in that they also evoke the ideology of Empire through the geographical and chronological breadth of the service of the Pensioners and their companions, as mentioned above, so does Woodville’s hotel sign (which had originally been a tavern sign) do more, though now as a statement of what might be called the looming confrontation of American politi- cal ideologies and political reality, also with a kind of historical breadth. For when Woodville painted the shield in War News, probably during the period from spring 1847 to later 1848, there were twenty-nine states in the Union, not the twenty-six that he quite pointedly chose to de- pict through the twenty-six stars on the shield another to a shield with some form of the Stars

14a Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (shield) another to a shield with some form of the Stars and Stripes on it — is, of course, the generic icon- ographical type that has acted as the source for more specific devices such as the Great Seal of the United States that appears on the American one-dollar bill and U.S. passport, in the Seal of the President of the United States, and so on.“ Just as Wilkie’s tavern signs in The Chelsea Pen- sioners do more than simply contribute to the es- tablishment of the setting in that they also evoke the ideology of Empire through the geographical and chronological breadth of the service of the Pensioners and their companions, as mentioned above, so does Woodville’s hotel sign (which had originally been a tavern sign) do more, though now as a statement of what might be called the looming confrontation of American politi- cal ideologies and political reality, also with a kind of historical breadth. For when Woodville painted the shield in War News, probably during the period from spring 1847 to later 1848, there were twenty-nine states in the Union, not the twenty-six that he quite pointedly chose to de- pict through the twenty-six stars on the shield another to a shield with some form of the Stars

14b Alfred Jones after Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico (detail: shield), 1851, engraving, 52.1x 47 cm. Winston Salem, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, affiliated with Wake Forest Univer- sity, gift of Barbara B. Millhouse (fig. 14a).% The stars in Woodville’s painting are somewhat illegible in places, presumably from age. However, the general pattern of four rows of stars — rows of seven stars alternating with rows of six, and with the lower row of six stars aligned with the interstices of the seven stars above - is discernable. This is confirmed by the extraordi- narily faithful reproductive engraving made by Alfred Jones in 1851 for the American Art-Union (fig. 14b).*°

14b Alfred Jones after Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico (detail: shield), 1851, engraving, 52.1x 47 cm. Winston Salem, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, affiliated with Wake Forest Univer- sity, gift of Barbara B. Millhouse (fig. 14a).% The stars in Woodville’s painting are somewhat illegible in places, presumably from age. However, the general pattern of four rows of stars — rows of seven stars alternating with rows of six, and with the lower row of six stars aligned with the interstices of the seven stars above - is discernable. This is confirmed by the extraordi- narily faithful reproductive engraving made by Alfred Jones in 1851 for the American Art-Union (fig. 14b).*°

15 Adalbert John Volck (?), Confederate News, ca. 1860-1870, oil on canvas, 127.3 x 132.7 cm. Baltimore, Maryland Histori- cal Society the European Revolutions of 1848. Without at- tempting to represent too closely the politics of a man who left no written evidence of his views, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Woodville was in fact making a political statement in War News. Aside from the Eagle and Shield, the par- ticular treatment of the African American fa- and responded directly to Woodville’s evocation of a particular point in history with his own.

15 Adalbert John Volck (?), Confederate News, ca. 1860-1870, oil on canvas, 127.3 x 132.7 cm. Baltimore, Maryland Histori- cal Society the European Revolutions of 1848. Without at- tempting to represent too closely the politics of a man who left no written evidence of his views, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Woodville was in fact making a political statement in War News. Aside from the Eagle and Shield, the par- ticular treatment of the African American fa- and responded directly to Woodville’s evocation of a particular point in history with his own.

16 William Allan, The Battle of Waterloo, 1843, oil on canvas, 118 x 310 cm. London, English Heritage, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House vulgarity. And yet an earlier bulletin of the Art- Union, that of 1849, quite positively compared Woodville to Wilkie on the basis of War News and two other of his works.** Granted that dif- ferent cultural expectations are at operation here, is it possible to look at Wilkie’s Chelsea Pension- ers as the visual source of Woodville’s War News from Mexico in a slightly different way than we have done so far in order to account for why the contemporary British critic instinctively saw War News as “common place” while the critic in the United States just as instinctively saw this same image as “strictly AMERICAN”? in many aspects of its themes and articulation. Above all in this regard, the British critic took the class system represented in The Chelsea Pensioners — his own class system — for granted, oblivious to the fact that this was a painting in which the “common sort” saw themselves in a way that they never had before.* This was why this “popular” work had to have a railing put up at its first exhibition: to keep the common sort at bay, to protect the painting from damage caused by their constantly touching it when pointing out figures to each other.° But there is some- thine more at nlav here.

16 William Allan, The Battle of Waterloo, 1843, oil on canvas, 118 x 310 cm. London, English Heritage, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House vulgarity. And yet an earlier bulletin of the Art- Union, that of 1849, quite positively compared Woodville to Wilkie on the basis of War News and two other of his works.** Granted that dif- ferent cultural expectations are at operation here, is it possible to look at Wilkie’s Chelsea Pension- ers as the visual source of Woodville’s War News from Mexico in a slightly different way than we have done so far in order to account for why the contemporary British critic instinctively saw War News as “common place” while the critic in the United States just as instinctively saw this same image as “strictly AMERICAN”? in many aspects of its themes and articulation. Above all in this regard, the British critic took the class system represented in The Chelsea Pensioners — his own class system — for granted, oblivious to the fact that this was a painting in which the “common sort” saw themselves in a way that they never had before.* This was why this “popular” work had to have a railing put up at its first exhibition: to keep the common sort at bay, to protect the painting from damage caused by their constantly touching it when pointing out figures to each other.° But there is some- thine more at nlav here.

17a Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (“CUPID” advertisement)

17a Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico, detail of fig. 1 (“CUPID” advertisement)

17b Alfred Jones after Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico (detail: “CUPID” advertisement), 1851, engraving, 52.1x 46.7 cm. Bentonville, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

17b Alfred Jones after Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico (detail: “CUPID” advertisement), 1851, engraving, 52.1x 46.7 cm. Bentonville, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

18 David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners, detail of fig. 2 (tavern sign for The Duke of York)

18 David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners, detail of fig. 2 (tavern sign for The Duke of York)

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References (15)

  1. -51, 53-55, 67-78. For more on this painting, see especially, William J. Chiego (ed.), Sir David Wilkie of Scotland (1785-1841) (exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art), Raleigh 1987, cat. no. 23;
  2. David H. Solkin, Crowds and Connoisseurs: Look- ing at Genre Painting at Somerset House, in: David H. Solkin (ed.), Art on the Line: The Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836, New Ha- ven 2001, 156-171, here 169-171; Nicholas Tromans, David Wilkie: Painter of Everyday Life, London 2002, cat. no. 20; Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics (exh. cat. London, Tate Britain) ed. by Patrick Noon, London 2003, cat. no. 49; Nicholas Tromans, David Wilkie: The People's Painter, Edin- burgh 2007, 162-168;
  3. David H. Solkin, Painting Out of the Ordinary: Modernity and the Art of Everyday Life in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain, New Haven 2008, 198-204; Joy Peterson Heyrman, The Genius of Richard Caton Woodville, in: Heyrman 2012 (as in note 3), 11-26, here 11-14, and cat. no. 8; Wierich 2012 (as in note 3), 43-44.
  4. Jeremy Howard et al. (eds.), William Allan: Artist Ad- venturer, Edinburgh 2001, 55-56.
  5. Cunningham 1843 (as in note 5), vol. 2, 72-73.
  6. See Longford 1972 (as in note 14), 89; Cunningham 1843 (as in note 5), vol. 2, 73.
  7. Cf. Frank Ongley Darvall, Disturbances and Public Order in Regency England, Oxford 1934, 259-260;
  8. Arthur Hope-Jones, Income Tax in the Napoleonic Wars, Cambridge 1939; Stuart Semmel, Napoleon and the British, New Haven 2004, 17-18, 175-199, 221-231, 233-234, 238-239; Roger Knight, Britain Against Na- poleon: The Organization of Victory 1793-1815, Lon- don 2013.
  9. Darvall 1934 (as in note 61), 259-260; Cruickshank 2004 (as in note 4), 121-122, 126.
  10. Roberts and Howe 2000 (as in note 50), 164-165.
  11. Robert Kiefer Webb, Modern England: From the Eigh- teenth Century to the Present, New York 1968, 488.
  12. North Carolina retained property requirements for voting for white adult males until 1856; see Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, New York 2000, 333.
  13. Our thanks to Patricia Erigero of Thoroughbred Heritage for her expertise in specifying the exact nature of this notice, a type of which she has seen a number from this period. Ms. Erigero went through numerous volumes of the American Stud Book, the American Turf Register, and a wide variety of other sources (such as newspapers) of around 1848 and earlier. The only record of a Cupid is to a "Cupid Oscar" (possibly to distinguish him from another Cupid or perhaps to indicate his pedigree) bred by Thomas N. Baden of Prince George's County, Mary- land, Cupid Oscar having been born too early (1818, both sire and dam Maryland bred) to have been referenced in a historically correct manner in this painting.
  14. Solkin 2008 (as in note 5), 203.
  15. Photo Credits: 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14a, 17a Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville (photography by Edward C. Robison III). -2, 6, 16, 18 Apsley House, London. -3, 4 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. -13 Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. -14b, 17b Courtesy of Reynolda House Museum of American Art, affiliated with Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem. -15 Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore.