John Gadsby Chapman
John Gadsby Chapman
1808 - 1889
American painter and illustrator. Early encouragement and instruction from GEORGE COOKE and CHARLES BIRD KING diverted Chapman from a career in law. In 1827 he began painting professionally in Winchester, VA, but quickly sought more training in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His desire to learn history painting soon took him to Italy to study the Old Masters. Returning to the USA in 1831, Chapman supported himself by painting portraits and occasional history subjects. Between 1837 and 1840 he executed the most important picture of his career, the Baptism of Pocahontas, the fifth painting to decorate the Rotunda of the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC (in situ). In the mid-1830s Chapman began to illustrate texts, contributing to numerous magazines and gift-books. His most famous project was Harper’s Illuminated Bible (New York, 1846), which contains over 1400 wood engravings in the style of Homer Dodge Martin and the later religious paintings of Benjamin West. Chapman’s most lasting achievement was his instruction manual, The American Drawing-book, which went into numerous editions.
Constant debt, recurring illness and minimal success as a history painter prompted Chapman in 1848 to return to Italy, where he painted engaging scenes of the Roman Campagna. These panoramas and more portable coloured etchings were very popular among American travellers. In 1884, however, Chapman returned to America physically and financially exhausted; his creative spark was all but extinguished. His sons, John Linton Chapman (1839 or 1840–1905) and Conrad Wise Chapman (1842–1910), were landscape painters of modest distinction. [H. Nichols B. Clark. "Chapman, John Gadsby." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 4, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T015969.]
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Taos Pueblo, 1906 - 1993
