That Braddock Picture
You've seen the picture of Braddock. That picture purports to show his likeness.
You've seen that Braddock picture echoed everywhere.
Who is the source of this picture?
We investigate.
We have 3 suspects.
N'wait, perhaps it is best to say we have "three persons of interest."
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William Sartain (1843 – 1924) is the artist of the image immediately shown below.
But he might not be the original creator of this image. There are 2 other possible authors of this image.
William Sartain could have created this impression at any time from 1890 to 1899. Most attributions echo circa 1899.
This link states:
Mezzotint, ca. 1899, 179 x 128 mm.,
LOC [Library of Congress] 2014645011.
Brilliant impression chine-appliqué
with large margins,
a proof before the letters below
and pencil signed by Sartain.
was a British officer and Commander in Chief for the 13 colonies at the start of the French and Indian Wars. He died in a disastrous attack against the French.
The accuracy of the portrait
(in all its forms)
has been challenged
as no image of Braddock
made during his lifetime
is currently known to exist.
At any rate, a rare signed print.
Scroll down to number 42 on the left and click or touch link and picture will appear
Source:
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There's this same picture again by another author.
Sources:
There is another artist who also created this same picture. Albert Rosenthal.
He was born 20 years after William Sartain, but he followed the same footsteps of William Sartain. It is very likely he knew of William Sartain. They both went to Philadelphia's Central High School. Both were involved heavily with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Being both from Pennsylvania, both would have been fascinated by the Braddock Expedition.
The above source claims the engraving is authored by Albert Rosenthal after H.B. Hall '96.
Does this mean Albert Rosenthal made this image of Braddock in 1896, copying an earlier image by H,B. Hall?
William Sartain is attributed to doing his copy in circa 1899.
Albert Rosenthal is attributed to doing his copy in 1896?
But it may be HB Hall is the original progenitor of this image.
HB Hall was born 35 some years before William Sartain who was born 20 years before Albert Rosenthal.
Picture below is attributed to H.B. Hall in 1871.
H.B. Hall moved to NYC in 1850 and established a studio 25 years before William Sartain did.
See the short thumbnail biographies of these 3 men below.
It may be that HB Hall is the original progenitor of this widely copied picture of General Braddock.
Source:
"The 3 Persons of Interest"
was born in Philadelphia on November 21, 1843, and his father was John Sartain. His sister, Emily Sartain, was also an artist, and eventually became the director of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. He attended Central High School (Philadelphia) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with artists Thomas Eakins and Charles Lewis Fussell. Eakins and Sartain traveled together in 1868. He stayed in Paris until 1875, when he returned to Philadelphia, and moved to New York City.
was born in Philadelphia on January 30, 1863 to Max Rosenthal. He studied at Central High School for three years. His father was an engraver and lithographer and he studied under him at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1880. He also studied at École des Beaux-Arts under Jean-Léon Gérôme. His first job was as an errand boy in the drug store owned by Charles Elmer Hires.
(11 May 1808 London – 25 April 1884 Morrisania, New York), was an English stipple engraver and portrait painter.
He was apprenticed to the engravers Benjamin Smith and Henry Meyer. Later he worked for Henry Thomas Ryall who was designated 'Portrait and Historical Engraver to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria'. Hall produced plates for Ryall's Eminent Conservative Statesmen (1837–38) and assisted in the engraving of seventy portraits for Ryall's plate of The Coronation of Queen Victoria after George Hayter (1838–42). Hall also engraved portraits of English Protestant martyrs for C. Birch (1839) and provided plates for John Wilson and Robert Chambers's The Land of Burns (1840), Finden's Gallery of Beauty (1841), John William Carleton's Sporting Sketch-Book (1842), and John Kitto's Gallery of Scripture Engravings (1846–49).
After settling in New York in 1850, he founded the firm of H. B. Hall and Sons, which grew into a flourishing practice, engraving and publishing portraits. He produced images of celebrities from American colonial and revolutionary history for a private club in New York and for Philadelphia collectors. Hall's talents extended to portrait painting, especially in ivory miniatures work. He had painted Napoleon III while still in London, and, after moving to America, painted portraits of the artists Thomas Sully and Charles Loring Elliott.
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If you magnify the picture here you will see in an arc immediately underneath the portrait the name of H.B. Hall 1871.
See source for that picture here:
and here:
"Braddock's March," drawn by A.B. Frost and engraved by H.B. Hall, Jr. United States History, by William Cullen Bryant (1881).
Taken from a blog site containing the best collection of pictures on the Braddock expedition and the final denouement of Fort Duquesne by the Forbes Expedition:
See pages 74 to 77 on H. B. Hall
More of H.B. Hall's works. The Braddock picture is not included in here:
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Blog compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 1/6/2022, updated 1/9/2022, updated 111pm EST 1/9/2022, 11/21/23
See about Braddock's official title:
Major-General Edward Braddock, generalissimo of H. B. M. forces in America
More Sources
Obituary of William Sartain in Philadelphia Inquirer:
Chine-collé
William Sartain apprenticed to his brother as an engraver, but decided he wanted to be a painter and traveled to Paris to study. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in the 1870s forced him to leave France, and he spent eighteen months traveling around Europe studying “tens of thousands of pictures.” Back in America, Sartain established a studio in New York, traveling to Philadelphia every two weeks to teach a drawing and painting class. This informal class, taught outside the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, inspired many young artists who would later become famous. (Tappert, “William Sartain and Cecilia Beaux: The Influences of a Teacher,” in Martinez and Talbott, Philadelphia’s Cultural Landscape, The Sartain Family Legacy, 2000)
Schwarz Gallery on Wm Sartain:
George Washington mezzotint and other portraits by Wm Sartain:
William Sartain Price Results
Another Philadelphia artist who knew William Sartain
10 Questions about Braddock by David L Preston:
Some old engravings of Braddock listed here:
One of the best collections of pictures on Braddock and Forbes expeditions:
Nothing on Braddock by H.B. Hall in the British Museum collection:
First introduced on Facebook page Sunday 1/9/2022
Sunday Word 2
You've seen that Braddock picture echoed everywhere. Who is the source of this picture? We investigate. We have 3 suspects. N'wait, perhaps it is best to say we have "three persons of interest."
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We cast this story out to the pond, because we know someone might know more.
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Stay tuned for Sunday Word 1 which will be looking at 1758 in this year of 2022.
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