The Capitol Dome

iMagination VS. faCt I n Grand Manner-derived history painting, the proper relationship of imagination to fact is difficult to settle upon. Quite apart from William H. Powell's deliberate choices in the matter, a complex composition like his The Battle of Lake Erie invited innumerable opportunities for confusing fact and fiction. The painting's historical accuracy may not bear close scrutiny in certain respects, but at least one contemporary critic celebrated the artist's due diligence in ensuring "there are no flights nor soarings away from the bare facts." 1 One eerie coincidence was a striking demonstration of this. While ransacking the Brooklyn Navy Yard for props, Powell inadvertently stumbled upon the very type of rowboat that had carried Perry from the Lawrence to the Niagara a half century earlier, although the model had been discontinued by the Navy in 1820. "When the stern was turned to the light, lo! the name of Perry [was] scrawled on it in chalk!" Understandably, "the artist and the officer accompanying him were completely mystified for a time." But a quick search of the records revealed that it was actually a rowboat from the USS Perry. The navy brig had not even been commissioned until 1843—fully 30 years after the battle whose victor it honors. But the rowboat's authenticity, coupled now by the romantic association of its namesake, proved irresistible. "Mr. Powell had the old relic repaired and made seaworthy, and then choosing his men he manned her." And according to the Washington correspondent W.J. Vance, writing shortly before the painting's unveiling, "herein lies the great value of Mr. Powell's picture. It is true to history. While the drawing and coloring are artistic and unexceptional, the picture would have been of but little value if it had been a production of the imagination." On another occasion, Powell was visited by one of the four surviving crewmen from Perry's fleet. Stephen Champlin (1789–1870) was said to have fired both the first and last shots of the engagement from his command aboard the schooner Ariel, which lived up to its name by being the swiftest vessel on the lake that morning. He was later a naval paymaster stationed at Buffalo, NY. According to Vance, [Captain Champlin] came on to New York during the progress of the work and found that Mr. Powell had misplaced the ships, and the result of six months [sic] work was at once rubbed out, and the vessels were put on again in their proper order. When this was done, the gallant captain assured the painter that it could not have been better done or more accu- rately drawn if Mr. Powell had been at the engagement in person. . . . It is fortunate that we are able to have everything just as it was instead of being compelled to rely on the imagination of the artist. —William diGiacomantonio 1 "Washington Correspondence [W.J. Vance]. Perry's Victory," 10 January 1873, Appendix to the Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 42nd Cong., 3rd Sess., pp. 153-54. the visual legacy of Romanticism, both emphasize the drama, motion, and emotion of the historical event they portray. Accordingly, the difficulties their protagonists face are shown in minute detail: the human and naval wreckage around Perry's small boat, the glacier-like ice floes and other hard- ships that Washington and his men confront, and the presence of the enemy lurking just beyond the haze that envelopes the background of each image. Both picture a distant goal—for Perry, the Niagara; for Washington, the New Jersey shore—as well as the effort required to reach it, but these impediments make each hero's success all the more notable and worthy of emulation. And by placing their subject in the midst of his fol- lowers, but elevated slightly above them, each canvas projects an ideal image of leadership, unity, and democracy. 28 In the mid-nineteenth century, the imagery of boats— understood as a metaphorical "ship of state"—carried par- ticularly resonant political meanings, as illustrated by these lines from an 1850 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "Sail on, sail on, O ship of state/Sail on, O union, strong and Fig. 10b. Percy Moran's Battle of Lake Erie (1911) also depicts Perry's trip from the Lawrence to the Niagara. Here the battle flag is draped along the side of the boat. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, LC-USZC4-6893 20 THE CAPITOL DOME

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