The Capitol Dome

larger scale appropriate to its intended location. 20 The pas- sage below, quoted in a March 1873 speech delivered by Rep. James Stevenson of Ohio, and entered into the record of The Congressional Globe, offers further insight into the process: The subject of the great national naval picture . . . was left to the Library Committee and the artist, and they decided upon the historical event of our early histo- ry, 'The Battle of Lake Erie.' Some of the members were in favor of illustrating one of the brilliant naval achievements of the (then) recent rebellion; but the common-sense view prevailed that as the picture was intended for the whole nation, no disturbing element should be perpetuated in it. 21 Since the idea of a Civil War subject was deemed too politi- cally charged for display in the Capitol in a period of national reconstruction, Perry's victory must have been viewed as an acceptable and readily-available alternative. While the version that hangs in the Capitol is larger in scale and accordingly expands the background scenery, it otherwise reproduces the original Ohio composition. While adhering to the basic narrative of Perry's actions, the accuracy of the painting's details have been questioned by some. Writing in 1925, Prof. Charles Lewis of the U.S. Naval Academy noted the absence of "Perry's motto-flag, bearing the words 'don't give up the ship.' The flag… [on Perry's shoulder] in the picture is not that flag, for it had no stars at all." 22 Lewis also questioned the number of figures in Perry's skiff, as well as the presence of his twelve-year-old brother Alexander. Contemporary sources list four or five oarsmen rather than six, and none mention the presence of a young boy. While Alexander Perry did serve as a midshipman on board the Lawrence, eyewitnesses recorded that when his older brother returned to the Lawrence to accept the British surren- der, he asked for Alexander who, having run orders through- out the battle, was found "asleep in his berth, exhausted by the excitement of the day," and so could not have accompanied Perry to the Niagara. 23 Lewis's critique suggests a larger issue: the relationship between history painting and historical fact. In Powell's defense, one might argue that his intention was to construct an image that privileged the "spirit" of the event—its national meanings, the lessons it taught, and the hero it celebrated— rather than its details. In this regard, he followed the param- eters of academic history painting established in the writings of the eighteenth-century British academician Sir Joshua Rey- nolds, as did his contemporary Emanuel Leutze, painter of Wash- ington Crossing the Delaware (1851) and Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (1861–62), the large-scale mural that Fig. 9a. Washington Crossing the Delaware, Emanuel Leutze, 1851 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, GIFT OF JOHN STEWART KENNEDY, 1897, WWW.METMUSEUM.ORG 18 THE CAPITOL DOME

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