The Syracuse Journal, Volume 29, Number 30, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 19 November 1936 — Page 8

The Story of a Famous Thanksgiving Picture BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

NOW that Thanksgiving Day will soon be here, you may be sure that you’ll be looking at a certain picture rather frequently. You’ve seen it many, many times —in books, in newspapers, in magazines, in poster displays, in school exhibits, in art stores. It’s one of America’s favorite pictures and because it has been reproduced or displayed so regularly around Thanksgiving time, it has become almost as much a t symbol of that day as roast turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. The celebration of Thanks- > giving Day is a distinctively/ American institution. Therefore it would seem appropriate that all of the symbols connected with it should also be purely American. So this picture of an early American scene should have been the product of an American artist and painted in this country. But it wasn’t. It was painted by an Englishman in England, and Englishmen gazed upon it long before it had the admiring ap- > proval of American eyes. George Henry Boughton was his name and his painting, which was destined to become such a favorite in America, Was first shown in London at the Royal

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Academy’s exhibit in 1867. When Boughton painted it he had no idea of associating it with the American Thanksgiving Day celebration nor did he ever dream that it would become a symbol of that celebration. Moreover, he gave it an entirely different title from the name by which we know it. He called it “Early Puritans of New England Going to Worship Armed to Protect Theltaselves From Indians and Wild Beasts.'*. But we Americans, preferring "something short and snappy," even in the titles of our historical pictures, shortened that to "Puritans Going to Church." Then with a fine disregard for the historical difference between the Puritans and the Pilgrims, we changed that title to the one by which the picture is now best known—- " Pilgrims Going to Church." Inspiration for the Painting. Os course, it’s possible that the artist himself disregarded the difference between those two groups of Massachusetts pioneers. For the theme of the picture was suggested to him by a

f .""if A ■ r -Aw THE FIRST THANKSGIVING IN AMERICA

passage in Bartlett’s “Pilgrim Fathers” which reads: “The few villages were almost isolated, being connected only by long miles of blind pathway through the wood . . The cavalcade proceeding through the forest to the church, the marriage procession (if marriage procession could be thought of in those frightful days) was often interrupted by the death shot at some invisible enemy." Other Boughton pictures dealt with the Pilgrims

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EARLY PURITANS OF NEW ENGLAND GOING TO WORSHIP ARMED TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM INDIANS AND WILD BEASTS (Pilgrims Going to Church)

rather than the Puritans, so perhaps his was the original error in using the word “Puritan” rather than “Pilgrim” in the title of his famous painting and we Americans unconsciously corrected that error for him in renaming it. In regard to those other pictures, it is interesting to note that Boughton painted one which might better have been associated with Thanksgiving than his “Pilgrims Going to Church.” It is the one he called “The First Thanksgiving in America” (reproduced in this article) but for some reason it has never become so well known nor so popular as any of his other paintings of life among the Pilgrims. Perhaps the fact that there are no women in it may account for that. Boughton was especially successful in painting female figures and the appeal of most of his pictures, notably his “Pilgrim Exiles,” “The Two Farewells,” “Return of the Mayflower,” "John Alden and Priscilla” and “Priscilla,” is due largely to the women depicted in them. Boughton was bom in Norfolk, England, in 1833. When he was six years old his family came to America and settled in Albany, N. Y., where he passed his youth. His parents intended him for a business career but he showed little interest in that and spent most of his spare time making pen-and-ink sketches. Once when he went to a general store to buy fish-hooks his eye was attracted to some tubes of oil colors and he bought them instead. With them he produced a painting on an old piece of canvas and this marked the beginning of what was destined to become a distinguished career as an artist. From that time on he continued to paint, in an unsystematic way, however. Realizing the need for technical training, he succeeded in selling several of his paintings in Albany and with the money obtained thus he went to London to study. After a few months he returned to Albany and subsequently moved to New York city where he remained for two years and soon made himself known as a landscape painter. He also worked as an illustrator, one of his commissions being the illustrations for Washington Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow." In 1858 he exhibited his first picture, “Winter Twilight” at the National Academy of Design and was frequently represented there, being made an academician in 1871. Returns to England. In the meantime, however, he had left New York for study in Paris and travel on the continent and in 1 he returned to his native lai.- and settled in London. But he took back with him a great fondness for the United States, where he had spent his boyhood, and this emotional at-

tachment included not only the America of his own time but extended back to the romantic era of the first settlement on the shores of the New World. Those adventurous days were very real to him and because of his reconstructive imagination and an art with which to express it, he has made them very real to later generations of Americans. In fact, it is not too much to say that Boughton’s paintings, more than any other single force, have

shaped the ideas of Americans concerning the kind of people who settled New England and made it easy for them to visualize the life of those pioneer times. Certainly it is true that we get a more vivid Impression of those early New Englanders from Boughton’s famous painting, which is seen so often at Thanksgiving, than we do from Bartlett’s words which provided the inspiration for it. Boughton set to work on this picture in 1866 and finished it in time for the Royal Academy's exhibit the next year. It was his only contribution to that exhibit but it was enough to establish his reputation as a real artist. Concerning it one English critic said: “The pathos and dramatic strength of the composition and the vigor of the technical treatment made this work markedly successful and put Mr. Boughton finally among the most prominent of the younger artists with original ideas and skill much above the average.” But even more illuminating is the comment of an American critic: “It requires no art education to understand the hold the painting has from the first had upon the public. The picture of that brave

THE TWO FAREWELLS

company of pioneers, whose religious fervor was so great that it brought them reverently through the snowdrifts each Sabbath morning, every man carrying a Bible and a gun, somehow appeals irresistibly to us at Thanksgiving time. “We gaze upon Mr. Boughton’s picture of the firm manner in which the Puritans faced their everyday perils with some degree of thankfulness to those there represented for having the wisdom to establish a day upon which we should recall our dependence upon God, even before we had the glory of establishing a day upon which we should celebrate our independence of other nations." Boughton himself has left this record of how this famous painting came about: “The first few small pictures which I had painted under the instruction of Edouard Frere in rural France, and afterwards in London under the same pleasant but clinging influence, had always been praised, when noticed, by the kindly critics for just thefr Frere qualities. This was agreeable enough but not quite ♦satisfying. I got rather tired of the ‘dividends’ that I did not feel quite entitled to; so I left the pleasant track, and bethought me of the Puritans and the sad but picturesque episofies in which they played parts. To insure a ‘pilgrimage’ with another range of subjects entirely, I chose a larger canvas, and planned a composition with a greater number of figures. The picture was painted in the depths of an English winter and a sufficiently snowy one.” Rea* * * OS JTO* * That last sentence is significant of Boughton's method of putting “atmosphere” into his paintings, especially when taken in connection with an incident early in his

SYRACUSE JOURNAL

career. As a beginner in America, while still doing landscapes, he was planning to sketch some snow scenes. In order to acclimate himself to the rigors of the New England winter, he did his drawing for a time in a fireless studio. One day while working there an elderly man visited him and became so concerned over the seemingly pitiful plight of the struggling young artist, who was apparently too poor to afford coal for a stove, that he reported the matter to a wealthy woman of the neighborhood in the hope that she would help Boughton. She promptly called upon him and ordered an expensive picture, leaving a check for a large sum of money to bind the bargain. Incidentally, the subject of the painting was to be a summer landscape—about as far removed from snow and ice and a fireless studio as one could imagine. A week later the kind-hearted woman returned to the studio, hoping to see for herself some cheery evidence of her benevolence. She was very much surprised to find it as cold as ever. This led to pointed inquiries which soon convinced her that this struggling young artist was working in a

cold studio from choice rather than necessity. She was very much amused to learn how mistaken she had been about his situation and she became a staunch friend and enthusiastic patron of the young Englishman. An International Reputation Boughton died in 1905 buU before his career ended he had established an international reputation as an artist of great versatility. Not only was he famous in both England and America for his pictures of the Puritan era and the Knickerbocker days in New York, but he was also unusually successful in painting pictures of French peasant life. Several of Boughton’s picture) have become parts of public collections. One of his Dutch subjects, “Weeds of the Pavement," is in the National Gallery of British Art “When the Dead Leaves Fall,” an autumn allegory, was purchased by the king of Italy for the Municipal Art Gallery in Rome.

The Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D. C., has two of his pictures. One is a small affair on the Lord Fauntleroy order and the other is a historical painting entitled “The Edict of William the Testy.” Although his “Pilgrims Going to Church” was painted in England and first won acclaim there it is now in the land where it is most beloved. It became the property of Mrs. K. L. Stuart of New York and is now in the Stuart and Lenox art collection which forms a part of the New York public library. There it is seen by thousands every year but it is a familiar picture to millions more—because Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without the reappearance somewhere of this famous Thanksgiving picture which was not intended to be a Thanksgiving picture at all! © Western Newspaper Uafoeu

On Congeniality—- ♦ Companionship Plus Adjustments Is Far Better Than Loneliness

IN EVERY family, whether little • or large, and however small or spacious the dwelling may be, there are times when conflicts arise because of unwanted contacts. Some special place may be desired above all others by one, or possibly two, in conference and a second or a third person coming in and wanting that particular room also is a cause of dissension. There may be no lack of affection between the people, but a temporary ruffling of personalities which is disturbing. When living quarters are congested, these occasions arise frequently, but they are not limited to such conditions. There are these convergencies, with their annoying discords, regardless of space, or the lack of it, and numbers of persons, or the fewness of them. It would appear to be partly a similarity of tastes as well as the popularity of the spot, whatever it is, that was an element of the magnetic force drawing the people together. Transient Dissension. It is true that instances are rare in which such trouble is more than a passing dissension. But this is enough to set the persons in bad humors for a few moments anyway, unless one or more of them has enough understanding of the situation to smooth others, or has a keen sense of humor, which sense is like oil to machinery in keeping things running without friction. Congeniality. It should be remembered that congeniality is one cause for this convergence of persons. The same things are liked, the same impulses are present, and enjoyment and discord are both caused by much the same things. Each of these persons is drawn to the same things and to the same places, and so naturally meet in the same room in the home, or the identical spot. If there- is the desire to be alone, resentment is stirred by the presence of another. It is at such times that tact and kindliness are needed. I am assuming that love is not lacking. Without this essential element in home life, there will be discord anywhere and at any time, if not, indeed, at all times. Loneliness. When harmony is desired, and clashes of temperaments of those caused by such things as are under discussion today, exist, it is well A Peaceable Man A peaceable man doeth more good than he who is well-learned. A passionate man turneth even good into evil, and easily believeth evil. A good peaceable man turneth all things to good.—Thomas a Kempis.

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WHAT? YOUR BOY SCOUTS USB MY POND I » StAmSve/ J FOR TH Bl R SM. MANG UPONHIM/ SKATINS RACES? GOcSq BANG I SHOULD SAY wr's AND kjFiNAL/ if KNOW U AM CROSS? WHAT THE DOCTOR | H YOU WOULD TDLD YtXJj HE 88/TOOzIFYOU II SAID YOU HATH | |COULDN'T SLEEP / I COFFEE-NERVES' | I ...ANO HAD M/ 1 HEADACHES ANO LAW, TELL > °NE BELIfiVBS iW’ybUR HUSBAND HE*' ’ I iL Jff IS certainly A , H switched HQ JOLLY SOUL/ TO POSriJM ■ ■1 W HB'sSSn 7 OP HIS LIFE/ J r l A DIFFERENT I PERSON J J ng

to bring oneself up with a round turn by thinking of the loneliness that would be felt if we die not have our family about us. During absences from home, or when one is left there when others are away, the realization of what it means to be alone and also together, creeps into the mind and it is warmed by the very thought of companionship of dear ones. © BeD Syndicate.—WNU Service.

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PREFERRED TO THE COSTLIEST SHORTENINGS

■ Idleness and Poverty To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches; and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care tc hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.—Johnson.

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QUAKER OATS

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Thursday, November 19, 1936

Uncle Phil CX Chaff or Flint Vagrant winds blow the chaff, but the flint is undisturbed. Which are we? If one must sneer, let him not indulge in cheap ones. They’re so trying among people of intelligence. More that boys are expected to j be perfect, the more dissembling ■ there will be. Outstanding trait of the great common people is their humanity.

Unforgiving Wisdom Wisdom never forgives. Whatever resistance we have offered to her law, she avenges forever; the lost hour can never be redeemed, and the accomplished wrong never undone.—Ruskin.