Last <oments of John Brown Visual Analysis
Formal Analysis: The Last Moments of John Brown
The Last Moments of John Brown is a painting by Thomas Hovenden. It is an oil on canvas painting painted in 1884. The dimensions of the painting are 46 1/8 x 38 3/8 inches. This piece was painted to depict abolitionist martyr John Brown being taken to his execution in Charlestown, Virginia, on December 2, 1859. The piece is currently located at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, California and its original location is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. On October 16th, 1859, John Brown led a group of twenty-one men in an attack on the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. His idea was to go from town to town arming black slaves hoping to spark a rebellion. The uprising was initially successful. They managed to take sixty prominent locals hostage and seized the town's United States arsenal and its rifle works. However, by the next evening, Brown and his men ended up stuck in an engine house. The next morning, Colonel Robert E. Lee’s troops rushed the building and captured Brown. For his part in the rebellion, Brown was tried, and convicted of murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state and sentenced to death by hanging.
The painting depicts John Brown being escorted out of a building walking down a set of stairs to his execution. Behind him are a group of finely dressed white men following him out of the building. On each side of the stairs, there are two soldiers dressed in navy with weapons and a group of African Americans along with one young white girl on the right side observing the situation. John Brown is seen kissing an African American infant being held by the baby’s mother.
On the right side of the stairs, people are more uncivilized. The children are trying to climb under railing and one solider looks to be holding back an adult, blocking him off with his elbow. This suggests that on the right side, these people were slaves as they gave off the impression that they weren’t
The Last Moments of John Brown is a painting by Thomas Hovenden. It is an oil on canvas painting painted in 1884. The dimensions of the painting are 46 1/8 x 38 3/8 inches. This piece was painted to depict abolitionist martyr John Brown being taken to his execution in Charlestown, Virginia, on December 2, 1859. The piece is currently located at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, California and its original location is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. On October 16th, 1859, John Brown led a group of twenty-one men in an attack on the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. His idea was to go from town to town arming black slaves hoping to spark a rebellion. The uprising was initially successful. They managed to take sixty prominent locals hostage and seized the town's United States arsenal and its rifle works. However, by the next evening, Brown and his men ended up stuck in an engine house. The next morning, Colonel Robert E. Lee’s troops rushed the building and captured Brown. For his part in the rebellion, Brown was tried, and convicted of murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state and sentenced to death by hanging.
The painting depicts John Brown being escorted out of a building walking down a set of stairs to his execution. Behind him are a group of finely dressed white men following him out of the building. On each side of the stairs, there are two soldiers dressed in navy with weapons and a group of African Americans along with one young white girl on the right side observing the situation. John Brown is seen kissing an African American infant being held by the baby’s mother.
On the right side of the stairs, people are more uncivilized. The children are trying to climb under railing and one solider looks to be holding back an adult, blocking him off with his elbow. This suggests that on the right side, these people were slaves as they gave off the impression that they weren’t