The Wahpeton times., 1889-03-28
A BATTLE ON CANVAS
PAINTING A PANoRAMA-HoW A
GREAT PICTURE IS CON-
CElNED AND MADE.

PAINTING A PANoRAMA-HoW A
GREAT PICTURE IS CON-
CElvED AND MADE.
Brilliant Work Of a Corps Of ar.
manArtists-An Historical PAINT
i ing-The Stormlng Of Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
Panoramas are popularity presumed
tohave originated in italy in represent
ing views from mountain peaks, drawn
as Unprotected on cylinder, afterward
cut open and unrolled. One of the
first exhibited in America was 1.-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 memorized
the descriptive lecture. had a pano-
rama constructed to fit it, just as a
modern playwright builds about farm
yard C'Little Sinner'), q fire engine
("Still alarm'') or a water tank (.sA
Dark Secretly. That accomplished
artist, Joseph Jefferson, is the posses
sor of a panorama of 1.-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
of the beauties OF the queen of rivers
and the picturesqueness and novelty of
rather a 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 Gulick, Bohemian,
whose studio was for years located at
Cincinnati. was the author of the piano.
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, 1.-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 revived
ON 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 long voyage, and from
the steamers deck on which the audi
ence were supposed to view success
sion of scenes, something like 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 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 memor-
able and fiercely fought battles of Mis-
sionary ridge and Lookout mountain.
Accompanied by corps of photograph
ers secured in New York they went di-
rectly to Chattanooga, Tenn, where a
studio some forty feet in length was
erected on Orchard knob. hill over
looking the entire field where General
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 to
be derived from local surveys on file in
Chattanooga. Reports and maps of
both union and confederate generals
were examined and compared and
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 a
composition in which the actors and
elements Of that historic battle could be
fitted to the valleys, slopes, ridges,
ravines and summit of that matchless
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 Roechling
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 arr
rangements having all been completed
the artists assembled at Washington
to consult the maps and plans q this
III 3