The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1889-03-21
A BATTLE ON CANVAS.
PAINTING A PANORAMA-HOW A
GREAT PICTURE Is CON-
CEIVED AND MADE.

CEIVED AND MADE.
Brilliant Work Of a Corps Of { err
man Artists-An Historical Paint
ing-The StorminR Of Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
Panoramas are popularity presumed
to have originated in italy in represent
ing views from mountain peaks, drawn
as Unprotected on a cylinder, afterward
cut open and unrolled, One of the
first exhibited In America was "The
Ascent of Mt Blanc" brought from
England by Albert Smith. The late
John E. Owens formed great fancy
for Smith and travelled with him during
his first tour through this country over
forty years ago, Smith then leaving
the country, Owens, having memorizel
the descriptive lecture, had a pano-
rama constructed to fit it, just as a
modern playwright builds about a farm
yard (''Little Sinner'), a fire engine
("Still alarm') or a water tank GA
Dark Secretly. That accomplished
artist, Joseph Jefferson, is the posses
sor of a panorama of The Holy Land"
painted by Telbin, an English artist,
that has for years been concealed with
his other antiquities, Bauvard's
Panorama of the Mississippi'' was
first unrolled to the pubic over thirty
five years ago and it covered three
miles of canvas and took hours to reel
off the beauties Of the queen of rivers
and the picturesqueness and novelty of
rather q fiat scene met the hearty ap-
proval of the public. r. E. J. Miles,
the we'll known theatrical manager,
once deserted his ''Mazeppa' to
lecture with panorama of the
war. Sam Gulicls, a Bohemian,
whose studio was for years located at
Cincinnati, was the author of the pano-
ramic productions: The Zones"
''Dante's Inferno" ''Rhineland' and
others. David porter, now in San
Francisco, stocked the country with
'Hibernicons" that with song and
dance attachment was popular and
profitable in the rural districts in call
ing attention to suffering Ireland. The
spectacular paintings, "The Fall OF
Babylon and Rome Under Nero
were the works of Rettig.
The roller panorama is comparative
ly modern but its career was destined
to be brief. Itgave rise to or reviv ed
an infinitely better and more instruc-
tive and valuable exemplar in the
present cyclorama. History credits
Robert Barker, Scotch artist, with
the invention of the circular panorama,
he having exhibited in Edinburgh
that city's panoramic reflection in 1888,
it being followed in succession with a
view of London, sea fights, etc. The
old roller panorama carried the spec
tator upon a long voyage, and from
the steamers deck ON which the audi
ence were supposed to view a success
sion of scenes, something like a Phil
lips or Stoddard lecture, The present
cyclorama provides the spectator with
an elevated position in the center of a
fixed landscape that has been made
memorable by some historical event.
At the first view of the spectator the
cyclorama seems TO be a mystery.
Surely he thinks there must be some
wonderful secret known only to the
painter in this illusion.
In the autumn of 1884 the distin-
guished German artist, Eugene Bracht
with a corps of artists from Berlin,
Germany, visited this country with a
view of placing on canvas the memoir
able and fiercely fought battles of Mis-
sionary ridge and Lookout mountain
Accompanied by a corps of photograph
ers secured in New York they went di
rectly to Chattanooga, Tenn, where 8
studio some forty feet in length wa:
erected on Orchard knob, a hill over
looking the entire field where Genera
Grant had established his headquarters
to observe the assault on the ridge
Here several weeks were spent gather
ing material. making sketches of the
landscape and using the information tc
be derived from local surveys on file in
Chattanooga. Reports and maps oil
both union and confederate generals
were examined and compared and q
hundred accounts Of the battle analyZed
the scenic possibilities studied, the spir.
it of the scene twenty-one years before
being caught in the imaginations of the
artists and the foundation laid for q
composition in which the actors anG
elements Of that historic battle could be
fitted to the valleys. slopes, ridges
ravines and summit of that matches:
spot.
While Prof. Bracht was thus plan,
ming the grand ensemble and studying
the landscape other artists were work
ing in a different field. Carl Roechline
and George Koch, figure painters, were
travelling about the country, one in the
north and the other in the south, study
ing types OF soldier faces from both
armies and gathering garments OF blue
and gray which had been worn in the
line of battle. The preliminary ar.
rangements having all been completed
the artists assembled at Washington
to consult the maps and plans of thi!
ever memorable campaign on file in the
war department and after this wa:
completed they left for Berlin, Ger
many, where was to be put on canvas
the finest and most realistic battle
painting ever exhibited TO the public
During the absence of the artists il
America workmen had been engaged
in erecting an immense building o
iron at Berlin in which was to be pu
up the canvas ready for the artists
brush. The requirements for perfec
work in this direction are various
There must be, first, what is called il