Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1052459
1."Petition of the Officers of the Art Union of Philadelphia to employ Rothermel to paint a picture for one of the panels of the Rotundo, May 9th, 1852," Senate records from the 32nd Congress, 'Petitions and Memorials' referred to the Committee on the Library, Sen32A-H10, 9 Dec. 1851 to 22 Feb. 1853, Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records Administration. 2."Petition of Thos. Sully and other artists of Philadelphia praying that Peter F. Rothermel may be employed to execute a historical painting for one of the public buildings in Washington," ibid. 3. Emanuel Leutze to Montgomery C. Meigs, 14 Feb. 1854. Painter, Emanuel Leutze File, Office of the Curator of the Architect of the Capitol. 4. Charles Lanman, The Crayon, 28 Feb. 1855, pp. 126–137. 5. See an earlier article in this journal for an excel- lent example of this struggle, especially as it relates to the Mexican-American War: Matthew Restall, "Montezuma Surrenders in the Capitol," The Capitol Dome, 53, no. 2 (Fall 2016): 2–10. 6. Joshua Reynolds, head of the British Royal Academy, defined British historical painting in his "Discourse IV," read to the Academy in 1771, as "some eminent instance of heroick action or heroick suffering. There must be something either in the action, or in the object, in which men are universally concerned, and which powerfully strikes upon the publick sympathy." In terms of subject matter, he advised that subjects be drawn from ancient (Greek or Roman) or biblical history, as he believed these sub- jects would be "popularly known." Joshua Reynolds, Seven Discourses Delivered in the Royal Academy by the President (London, 1778), p. 103–104. 7. For two excellent publications on history paint- ing in the United States, including the Capitol paint- ings, see William H. Gerdts and Mark Thistlethwaite, Grand Illusions: History Painting in America (Fort Worth, TX, 1988); and Ann Uhry Abrams "National Paintings and American Character: Historical Murals in the Capitol's Rotunda," in William S. Ayers, ed., Picturing History: American Painting, 1770–1930 (New York, 1993), pp. 65–79. For a study of Trumbull's paintings in particular see Tanya Pohrt, "Reception and Meaning in John Trumbull's 'Declara- tion of Independence,'" Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin: Teaching with Art (2013): 116–119. 8. From the Rotunda, General file, Office of the Curator of the Architect of the Capitol. 9. 11 Cong. Deb. 791–95 (1834); Statutes at Large, 24th Cong., sess. 1, Res. 8 (23 June 1836), p. 133. 10. "Editorial Notes," Fine Arts, Putnam's Maga- zine, 3 (Jan.–Jun. 1854): 117–19. 11. Ray Hernández-Durán, "Modern Museum Practice in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: The Academy of San Carlos and la antigua escuela Mexicana", 9, Issue 1 (Spring 2010). www.19th c-artworldwide.org. 12. PAFA annual exhibition records indicate Rothermel and Leutze's paintings showing regularly together in the 1840s and 1850s. Mark Thistlethwaite notes that Rothermel and Leutze were both study- ing in Philadelphia at the same time and may have been in John Rubens Smith's drawing class together. Mark Thistlethwaite, Painting in the Grand Manner: The Art of Peter Frederick Rothermel (1812–1895) (Chadds Ford, PA, 1995), p. 13. 13. Thomas Dunn English, "Peter F. Rothermel," Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art, 10 (January 1852): 15. 14. An Amateur, "Visits to the Painters," Godey's Lady's Book, 29 (Dec. 1844): 277. 15. Richard Kagan, "Prescott's Paradigm: A New Look at a Bostonian's Image of Sixteenth-Century Spain" in Jonathan Brown, ed., The Word Made Image: Religion, Art, and Architecture in Spain and Spanish America, 1500–1600 (Boston, 1998), p. 16. 16. Biographical and Genealogical History of the City of Newark and Essex County, New Jersey (New York and Chicago, 1898), pp. 149–51; The Frick Collection, "Archives related to Robb, James, 1814–1881," last modified 12 Nov. 2014, http:// research.frick.org/directoryweb/browserecord2. php?-action=browse&-recid=7150; Tulane University, Howard Tilton Memorial Library, Special Collec- tions, "Latrobe, John H.B. (John Hazelhurst Boneval), 1803–1891," http://special collections.tulane.edu/ 46 THE CAPITOL DOME NOTES