The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-25
Csceola's Two Portraits.

Many valuable paintings ad9rE the walls
of the Ponce de Leon, the celebrated hotel
at st. Augustine. Among them is a por-
trait of De Soto, by an old master, and one
of Osceola the Indian chieftain. who was
the leader of the Indians in the Seminole
war 1t was painted by Robert Curtis, who
was well-known artist of Charleston, S.
! C. He died few years ago at a very ad-
vanced age.
Osceolo was distinguished among the In
dian cheftai1s of Florida for ability and
courage. Indeed, it is doubtful if he had
an equal among them il those respects. He
was half-breed, his father being an En-
glishman named Powell, who lived in
Southwest Georgia His mother was a
daughter of chieftain Of the Greeks, a
tribe that, until the latter part of the first
quarter of the present century, occupied
great deal of the country south of the Alta
ma river.
While visiting one of the military posts
Osceolas wife was seized as a fugitive slave
and taken from him. Shortly afterward,
in retaliation he murdered Gen. Thompson,
the Indian Agent, and four other white
followers, and, joining the Indians who had
lately murdered Maj. Dade and his com
mand, he began war which did not really
end until the removal Of the Indians from
Florida to the Indian Territory in 1862.
Osceola, however, was taken prisoner in
October, 1882 by Gen. Jesup while under
flag of truce and sent to Fort Moultrie, in
Charleston harbor, where he died in 1885.
His grave is still pointed out near the fort.
Mr.. Curtis, who was a young portrait
painter at the time that Osceola was a pris-
oner in Fort Moultrie, prevailed upon the
chieftain to sit for his portrait. 1t was
painted under very favorable circum-
stances and attracted great deal of atten-
ton.
1t is question whether the one in the
Ponce de Leon is the original, or a copy by
the same artist. The original picture be-
came the property of a man named Fair
child, who, for many years, kept a bar
room in Charleston, on the fashionable part
of King street, near Wentworth and it was
one of the attractions of that resort. In the
course of time the saloon passed into other
hands, and with it the por-
trait. A few years afterward either
Mr.. Fairchild or his successors opened a
saloon within few doors of the first one,
and had it fitted up as nearly like the first
US it was possible to make it. To complete
the resemblance between the two barrooms
a portrait of OSceola was necessary, and
Mr.. Curtis was applied to for a copy Of that
picture, which he furnished A card at
tached to the picture in the Ponce de Leon
states that it is the original The other
picture is in the possession of Mr.. j. Bennett
Bissell, of Charleston, who, it is understood,
says that it is the original, that it was
painted in 1878, and that the one in the
Ponce de Leon is the copy.
Both pictures are valuable works of art,
and are highly priced. 1t might not be an
easy matter, even for an expert, to decide
which is the original The only way, per-
haps, in which the truth could be reached,
would be by comparing the works of the
artist of the two periods in which the por-
traits were painted. The copy was painted
twenty years after the original, and when
the artist it was thought, did better work
than in his younger days This being the
case, the copy should show evidences of the
artists maturer powers. Mr. Flagler. the
owner of the Ponce de Leon, obtained the
picture he has from ex-Mayor Courtenay,
of Charleston 1t is hardly probable that
any one will take the trouble to attempt to
determine which of the two pictures is the
original.