AFA 20th Anniversary

Charles Codman (1800–1842), Entertainment of the Boston Rifle Rangers by the Portland Rifle Club in Portland Harbor, August 12, 1829 , 1830. Oil on panel, 24½ x 32½ in. Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund (51.196). Portland Observatory, an 82-foot tower built in 1807, was a marvel of engineering. Its retired sea captain in charge, Lemuel Moody (1761–1846) used signal flags to alert merchants of their ships returning to port. Especially proud of his new telescope made by P. and J. Dolland of London, Moody welcomed visitors, whose climb to the cupola was rewarded by views of Casco Bay and the White Mountains, seventy miles to the west. Rufus Porter was familiar with the scene depicted in Codman’s painting, including Fort Burrows, in the lower right, where he served during the War of 1812, and the parade ground, where the Portland Light Infantry, his militia company, also mustered. The observatory and this scenery inspired many of Porter’s interior murals, which included related towers, ships, islands, and panoramic waterscapes. 20th Anniversary 142 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com Benjamin West (1738–1820), Robert Fulton , 1806. Oil on canvas, 36¼ x 28¼ in. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y.; Gift of Stephen C. Clark (N0218.1961). Photo: Richard Walker. Robert Fulton, like Rufus Porter, was an ambitious man with many talents. He began as an artist but is most famous today as the engineer and inventor who developed the first commercial steamboat. Fulton also wrote an important treatise on the improvement of canal transportation and built the world’s first practical submarine. Benjamin West was born in Pennsylvania, where he taught himself to paint and befriended Benjamin Franklin. In 1760 he traveled to Europe and eventually settled in London, where he became known as a painter. West obligingly instructed many American artists who visited London, including Charles Bird King and three artist-inventors—Fulton, Samuel Morse, and Henry Sargent (1770–1845). Painted in London, this likeness romanticizes its subject, portraying Fulton as a fiery, intense genius. A torpedo, another of Fulton’s inventions, explodes in the background.