July 19, 2011 - Auction Central News

Rarely displayed Confederate paintings available to view online

The Flag of Sumter by Conrad Wise Chapman (American, 1842-1910). Image courtesy of The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – Rarely displayed paintings of Charleston during the Civil War by a Confederate soldier, including an iconic rendering of the submarine H.L. Hunley, are being made available this week on the Internet by The Museum of the Confederacy.

The museum in Richmond, Va., has uploaded to its website all 31 paintings by Conrad Wise Chapman, an American artist who grew up in Italy and later served with the Confederate Army.

Launching the site culminates a decade-long, $25,000 effort to conserve the paintings and make them available to a wider audience of Civil War buffs and scholars.

Chapman was stationed in Charleston in 1863 and early 1864. He sketched Fort Sumter, where the war began in 1861, as well as batteries around the city held by the South until just before the war ended in 1865.

Perhaps the most famous painting is of the submarine H.L. Hunley. The Chapman rendering was done in December, 1863, about two months before the hand-cranked sub sank the Union blockade ship Housatonic to become the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship.

The Hunley never returned from its mission and was raised with the remains of its crew of eight off Charleston in 2000. It is being preserved at a conservation lab in North Charleston.

The website features comments Chapman wrote about each painting. He notes in one comment dated 1898, about a decade before his death, that the Hunley sank twice before its mission against the Housatonic.

“After this had happened the second time, someone painted on it the word ‘Coffin,'” Chapman recounted. “There was just room enough in it for eight men, one in front of the other, with no possibility of anyone sitting straight. The third time it started out, it never came back…”

Chapman took his sketches back to Rome, where he turned them into a series of paintings he called his “Journal of the Siege of Charleston.” His father, John Gadsby Chapman, who taught his son painting, painted six of the 31 sketches.

“Conrad Wise Chapman had been born in Washington, DC and when he was very young his family moved to Italy,” said Cathy Wright, the museum’s conservator. “He had only a genealogical connection to the American South but when the war broke out he felt so strongly he did want to come and join the Confederate Army.”

In 1864, Chapman asked to leave the army and return to Italy where his mother was purportedly ill.

“Historians are not really sure she was sick or using this as an excuse to get him out of there,” Wright said. “Of course, many other soldiers were asking to go home and we don’t know if he got special consideration or not but a close family friend was the former governor of Virginia.”

His mother did not die until some years later.

Chapman never returned as a Confederate soldier. The paintings were later bought by a prominent Richmond family, then sold to the parent organization of the museum around 1900.

The paintings, all rather small at 10 by 12 inches, were on display at the museum for years when it was housed in the old Confederate White House through the 1970s. But in recent years they have not been displayed as a group.

In February, the museum completed a 10-year, $20,000 conservation of the paintings. Digitalizing them for the web cost another $5,000 paid for by the museum as well as organizations in both Virginia and South Carolina.

The series of originals was displayed this spring at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the war.

Visitors to the website will see the paintings more clearly than if they view them in person, said Sam Craghead, a spokesman for the Museum of the Confederacy. He said they can zoom in so closely they can see brush strokes.

The paintings are important both as art and as history, Wright said.

“On an artistic level they are certainly very lovely but what is interesting for historians is Chapman is one of the only artists who created these pieces during the war and from seeing these things himself. Many newspaper artists were getting second hand descriptions and accounts and did their best guess at what happened. Chapman is out in the field.”

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Online: The Museum of the Confederacy: www.moc.org/site/PageServer

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Battery Marshall, Sullivan's Island by Conrad Wise Chapman (American, 1842-1910). Image courtesy of The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va. — Battery Marshall, Sullivan’s Island by Conrad Wise Chapman (American, 1842-1910). Image courtesy of The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va.

Quaker Battery by Conrad Wise Chapman (American, 1842-1910). Image courtesy of The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va.

The HL Hunley by Conrad Wise Chapman (American, 1842-1910). Image courtesy of The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va.

Appalachian Trail Conservancy recognizes top employees

EMORY, Va. – The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has awarded two public-agency employees National Partner Awards.

Donald T. King, chief realty officer for the National Park Service National Trail Land Resources Program Center in Martinsburg, W.Va., and Pamela Underhill, manager of the NPS Appalachian Trail Park Office in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., received the Appalachian Trail Conservancy National Partner Award during the ATC’s biennial membership conference in July. They are the first recipients of this award, which recognizes dedication on the part of public-agency employees to the preservation and management of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

“The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is proud to work with such partners as Don King and Pam Underhill,” said David N. Startzell, executive director of the ATC. “Their dedication and commitment to the trail has helped tremendously in its protection so that future generations can enjoy this national treasure for years to come.”

The National Partner Award recognizes individuals for their service in the protection and management of the Appalachian Trail. Recipients of the award are public-agency employees who have contributed substantially to the success of the A.T. project over an extended period of time and who have a trail-wide impact.

King has spent more than 40 years with the National Park Service focusing the majority of the past 32 years to supporting and eventually overseeing the NPS land acquisition program for the Appalachian Trail. Over that time, King has been involved, directly and indirectly, in the acquisition of lands and interests in lands along the trail in 11 states, affecting more than 2,500 parcels and 117,000 acres, and extending federal protection along 620 miles of the trail.

Underhill has devoted more than 32 years to the defense of the Appalachian Trail and its associated resources. While being a strong and articulate advocate for land conservation along the trail, she has also been forceful in defending and supporting the unique partnership that exists among park office, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, trail-maintaining clubs and trail volunteers. Underhill has also been a supporter of youth- and community-engagement programs intended to cultivate the next generation of trail volunteers.

For more information about the Appalachian Trail Conservancy visit www.appalachiantrail.org.

Leslie Hindman to sell Frida Kahlo decorated book Aug. 9

Frida Kahlo inscribed pages of a 1905 edition of 'The Works of Edgar Allan Poe.' The personally decorated volume is expected to sell for more than $20,000. Image courtesy of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

CHICAGO – A beat-up copy of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe is expected to sell for over $20,000 at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on Aug. 9. It is no ordinary used book – it belonged to celebrated Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who covered the book with doodles, inscriptions, paint and collaged leaves. To Frida, the book provided an outlet for her to engage in dialogue with Poe’s mysterious and macabre poetry, and the result is one of the most intriguing artist’s books to appear on the market.

LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The most interesting inscription appears at the beginning of the book, where Frida has the written following in crayon: “Pues si, Frida Kahlo, Auxocromo Cromoforo, 1922, 1945, 23, 12, 35, always.”

A close reading, offered by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernist expert Luis-Martin Lozano, points directly to Kahlo’s relationship with her husband, Diego Rivera: Frida Kahlo met Rivera in 1922; she wrote in the book in 1945; she met Diego when she was 12 (actually 15, but she claimed she was born in 1910 to appear younger) and he was 35; the 23 refers not only to the years between when Frida wrote in the book and when she met Rivera (1922-1945), but also to their difference in age. These numbers and connections are coupled with the word always and the symbol for infinity. Auxocromo Cromoforo, a phrase repeated at the end of selected poems throughout, further alludes to Frida’s relationship with Rivera; the phrase first appeared in a poem Frida wrote in her diary, which translates: “My Diego, Mirror of the Night … You could be called Auxocromo – the one who takes color. I Cromoforo – the one who gives the color. You are all the combinations of the numbers.”

“The inscriptions and collages form an extraordinary record of the artist’s creative process,” notes Hindman’s director of Books and Manuscripts, Mary Williams. “Kahlo’s works are exceptionally rare. On the occasion one does appear at auction, prices quickly exceed $200,000, with the highest price ever fetched being $5.6 million in May 2006. “The present collaged work is without precedent at auction,” Williams added. “We expect the artist’s book to exceed its presale estimate of $20,000-$30,000.”

The book was previously in the collection of Teresa Proenza, Diego River’s secretary and close personal friend of Frida Kahlo.

For more information, please contact Leslie Hindman Auctioneers at 312-334-4236 or marywilliams@lesliehindman.com. A fully illustrated catalog is available at www.lesliehindman.com.

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Kentucky Arts Council awards $1.6 million to arts groups

Kentucky's heritage is steeped in art traditions. This mid-19th-century quilt attributed to the Beaver Dam, Kentucky area was entirely hand sewn. It was auctioned by Cowan's on Feb. 4, 2005. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Cowan's Auctions Inc.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – One hundred nonprofit arts and cultural organizations have received a total of $1.6 million in operational support funding from the Kentucky Arts Council.

The council says the funds are administered through the Kentucky Arts Partnership program with competitive, matching grants for organizations offering year-round opportunities for citizens to enjoy the arts.

Among the awards are $50,000 to the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, $46,000 to Owensboro’s RiverPark Center, $30,000 each to Lexington Children’s Theatre and Lexington Philharmonic, $29,000 to the Mountain Arts Center in Floyd County, $95,000 to Actors Theatre of Louisville, $53,000 to Appalshop in Letcher County, $61,000 to The Carson Center in Paducah and $22,000 to Orchestra Kentucky in Bowling Green.

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Demolition case may affect Cincinnati preservation

Circa-1890 photo of James Gamble (Irish/American, 1803-1891), co-founder of Procter & Gamble.

CINCINNATI (AP) – Efforts to preserve thousands of Cincinnati properties with historical significance could be affected by the outcome of legal wrangling over the possible demolition of a home once owned by a Procter & Gamble Co. heir.

The city is appealing a Hamilton County magistrate’s ruling that a demolition permit should be granted for the former James Norris Gamble home, and preservationists worry it will be tougher to protect other properties if the ruling is upheld, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Sunday. Gamble, a philanthropist who helped develop Ivory Soap, lived in the 13-room Victorian mansion from 1875 to 1932.

At issue is a potential difference in protection between those properties that are perceived as having historical significance and those that have been declared as having it. Should the ruling be upheld, the Cincinnati buildings protected from demolition would be limited to several dozen sites that received an official historic designation from the city council – not the more than 5,000 structures that are viewed or listed as historically significant in various neighborhoods, the Enquirer reported. It said so far there are 23 historic districts and 28 landmarks with official designations.

Efforts to protect the Gamble home have spanned decades, and it was added to a list of buildings that the city deemed historically significant in 1978. But Greenacres Foundation, which owns the home and is overseen by the wife of Gamble’s grandson, has said the property is now beyond repair and has sought to level it.

Preservationists applied for the site’s official historic designation in February 2010, about a week before the owner sought the demolition permit, but the historic designation wasn’t given until that May. In the magistrate’s view, that meant the demolition permit was requested before the site was officially declared historic, so he ordered that the permit be granted.

The city argues it amended its law in 2004 to require a lengthy review process before the demolition of “historic structures,” not only those with an official designation. Such a designation restricts demolition but not repairs, painting or other changes to a property.

It’s “more like a ‘Congratulations! Your building is historic!’ certificate,” said City Solicitor John Curp. He said the city plans to defend its process of designating and preserving historic buildings.

“If it is ultimately determined that the historic conservation process is flawed, we will take the remedial steps necessary to close the loophole,” he said.

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Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com

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African American Civil War Museum reopening in DC

Civil War-era studio portrait of a young African-American sailor, identified by pencil notation on verso: 'Jim/Steward...Steerage Mess/My Servant.' Sold by Cowan's Auctions for $3,000 on Dec. 4, 2008. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com archive and Cowan's Auctions.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – With a fife and drum band playing Yankee Doodle and civil war re-enactors sweltering in the summer sun, a museum honoring the contribution of African Americans in the Civil War moved into its new home in Washington Monday.

“It is finally finished, a great new 5,000-square-foot African American Civil War Museum,” Frank Smith, the director of the museum, said at a ceremony to install it in its new home overlooking a square housing a memorial to black Civil War soldiers.

The inauguration ceremony came as the United States marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in the country’s history.

More than 500,000 people were killed in the war, in which the Union, and South battled over states’ rights and slavery. Fighting began April 12, 1861, with an attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Two years later, the first unit of black soldiers recruited in the North fought in a battle for Fort Wagner in South Carolina. The battle took place on July 18, 1863—148 years to the day of the ceremony on Monday preserving the memory of fighters like the 54th Massachusetts infantry in a new, state-of-the-art museum.

The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry suffered heavy losses in the assault on the key fort. Its white commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, and dozens of rank and file soldiers died, alongside several hundred other Union troops.

On Monday, a dozen African American men wearing the wool coats of Civil War soldiers from the North stood to attention outside the museum’s new home, sweltering in the heat and humidity that are a hallmark of Washington summers.

Alongside them, women re-enactors of the 19th-century era wore bustles under their skirts and carried parasols. A fife and drum band played Yankee Doodle as a color guard led the way a few hundred feet from the square to the new museum.

“This is a grand event, wonderful, just grand,” said Helen Hassell, who was portraying Mary Peake, an African American schoolteacher, born around 1823 in Virginia, a Southern state that allowed slavery.

The museum aims to use historic documents, photographs, exhibits and oral histories to tell the stories of more than 200,000 African Americans who fought in the Civil War and their descendants, who 50 years ago launched the U.S. civil rights movement.

“This museum will show us and teach us history the way it really happened, not the way it’s portrayed in the movies,” Hassell said.

“With a few exceptions, films about the civil war never show black soldiers. And yet President Lincoln said that had it not been for colored troops, the North would not have won the war.”

According to museum historians, Lincoln initially refused to allow blacks to fight, “until it became clear the Union would not be preserved without the aid of the black soldier.”

“On May 22, 1863, the Bureau of U.S. Colored Troops was established to recruit, train, outfit and deploy what would become a force of 200,000 African American soldiers,” a museum handout says.

Americans elected their first African American president, Barack Obama, in 2008—145 years after blacks fought in the Civil War to keep the country united and around 50 years since the start of the civil rights movement.

“We’ve come a long way, yes, we have,” Hassell said, as the fife and drum band—made up of a black man, a white woman and a Latino—finished a stirring rendition of the national anthem.

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