Comments - Meath Artist John Mulvany: Painting the "Last Stand" - The Wild Geese2024-03-29T12:49:37Zhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=6442157%3ABlogPost%3A304619&xn_auth=no"Back to the Wigwam," done by…tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-04-01:6442157:Comment:3052262023-04-01T03:07:49.506ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p>"Back to the Wigwam," done by Mulvany in 1881. </p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798700?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798700?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>"Back to the Wigwam," done by Mulvany in 1881. </p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798700?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798700?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p> A portrait of Robert Emmet by…tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-04-01:6442157:Comment:3052252023-04-01T03:05:55.045ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p>A portrait of Robert Emmet by Mulvany.<a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798298?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798298?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>A portrait of Robert Emmet by Mulvany.<a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798298?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798298?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p> The medal Mulvany was awarded…tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-04-01:6442157:Comment:3050172023-04-01T03:03:50.691ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p>The medal Mulvany was awarded by the Bavarian Royal Academy of Fine Arts.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798084?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798084?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>The medal Mulvany was awarded by the Bavarian Royal Academy of Fine Arts.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798084?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11018798084?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-center"/></a></p> Walt Whitman's report on firs…tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-03-20:6442157:Comment:3050072023-03-20T20:40:38.490ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p>Walt Whitman's report on first seeing "Custer's Last Rally": Went today to see this just-finished painting by John Mulvany, who has been out in far Dakota, on the spot, at the forts, and among the frontiersmen, soldiers, and Indians, for the last two years, on purpose to sketch it in from reality, or the best that could be got of it. Sat for over an hour before the picture, completely absorbed in the first view.</p>
<p>A vast canvas, I should say twenty or twenty-two feet by twelve, all…</p>
<p>Walt Whitman's report on first seeing "Custer's Last Rally": Went today to see this just-finished painting by John Mulvany, who has been out in far Dakota, on the spot, at the forts, and among the frontiersmen, soldiers, and Indians, for the last two years, on purpose to sketch it in from reality, or the best that could be got of it. Sat for over an hour before the picture, completely absorbed in the first view.</p>
<p>A vast canvas, I should say twenty or twenty-two feet by twelve, all crowded, and yet not crowded, conveying such a vivid play of color, it takes a little time to get used to it. There are no tricks; there is no throwing of shades in masses; it is all at first painfully real, overwhelming, needs good nerves to look at it. Forty or fifty figures, perhaps more, in full finish and detail in the mid-ground, with three times, that number, or more, through the rest—swarms upon swarms of savage Sioux, in their war bonnets, frantic, mostly on ponies, driving through the background, through the smoke, like a hurricane of demons. A dozen of the figures are wonderful. Altogether a western, autochthonic phase of America, the frontiers, culminating, typical, deadly, heroic to the uttermost—nothing in the books like it, nothing in Homer, nothing in Shakspere; more grim and sublime than either, all native, all our own, and all a fact. A great lot of muscular, tan-faced men, brought to bay under terrible circumstances—death ahold of them, yet every man undaunted, not one losing his head, wringing out every cent of the pay before they sell their lives.</p>
<p>Custer (his hair cut short stands in the middle), with dilated eye and extended arm, aiming a huge cavalry pistol. Captain Cook is there, partially wounded, blood on the white handkerchief around his head, aiming his carbine coolly, half kneeling—(his body was afterwards found close by Custer's.) The slaughtered or half-slaughter horses, for breastworks, make a peculiar feature. Two dead Indians, herculean, lie in the foreground, clutching their Winchester rifles, very characteristic. The many soldiers, their faces and attitudes, the carbines, the broad-brimmed western hats, the powder-smoke in puffs, the dying horses with their rolling eyes almost human in their agony, the clouds of war-bonneted Sioux in the background, the figures of Custer and Cook—with indeed the whole scene, dreadful, yet with an attraction and beauty that will remain in my memory.</p>
<p>With all its color and fierce action, a certain Greek continence pervades it. A sunny sky and clear light envelop all. There is an almost entire absence of the stock traits of European war pictures. The physiognomy of the work is realistic and Western. I only saw it for an hour or so; but it needs to be seen many times—needs to be studied over and over again. I could look on such a work at brief intervals all my life without tiring; it is very tonic to me; then it has an ethic purpose below all, as all great art must have.</p>
<p>The artist said the sending of the picture abroad, probably to London, had been talk'd of. I advised him if it went abroad to take it to Paris. I think they might appreciate it there—nay, they certainly would. Then I would like to show Messieur Crapeau that some things can be done in America as well as others.</p> “A DEATH-SONNET FOR CUSTER” B…tag:thewildgeese.irish,2023-03-20:6442157:Comment:3051012023-03-20T17:12:12.429ZJoe Gannonhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JoeGannon
<p>“A DEATH-SONNET FOR CUSTER” BY WALT WHITMAN.</p>
<p>I.From far Montana's cañons,</p>
<p>Lands of the wild ravine, the dusky Sioux, the lone-<br></br> some stretch, the silence,</p>
<p>Haply, to-day, a mournful wail—haply, a trumpet<br></br> note for heroes.</p>
<p></p>
<p>II.The battle-bulletin,</p>
<p>The Indian ambuscade—the slaughter and environ-<br></br> ment</p>
<p>The cavalry companies fighting to the last—in stern-<br></br> est, coolest, heroism.</p>
<p>The fall of Custer, and all his officers and…</p>
<p>“A DEATH-SONNET FOR CUSTER” BY WALT WHITMAN.</p>
<p>I.From far Montana's cañons,</p>
<p>Lands of the wild ravine, the dusky Sioux, the lone-<br/> some stretch, the silence,</p>
<p>Haply, to-day, a mournful wail—haply, a trumpet<br/> note for heroes.</p>
<p></p>
<p>II.The battle-bulletin,</p>
<p>The Indian ambuscade—the slaughter and environ-<br/> ment</p>
<p>The cavalry companies fighting to the last—in stern-<br/> est, coolest, heroism.</p>
<p>The fall of Custer, and all his officers and men.</p>
<p></p>
<p>III.Continues yet the old, old legend of our race!</p>
<p>The loftiest of life upheld by death!</p>
<p>The ancient banner perfectly maintained!</p>
<p>(O lesson opportune—O how I welcome thee!)</p>
<p>As, sitting in dark days,</p>
<p>Lone, sulky, through the time's thick murk looking<br/> in vain for light, for hope,</p>
<p>From unsuspected parts, a fierce and momentary<br/> proof,</p>
<p>(The sun there at the center, though concealed,</p>
<p>Electric life forever at the center,)</p>
<p>Breaks forth, a lightning flash.</p>
<p></p>
<p>IV. Thou of sunny, flowing hair, in battle,</p>
<p>I erewhile saw, with erect head, pressing ever in<br/> front, bearing a bright sword in thy hand,</p>
<p>Now ending well the splendid fever of thy deeds,</p>
<p>(I bring no dirge for it or thee—I bring a glad, tri-<br/> umphal sonnet;)</p>
<p>There in the far northwest, in struggle, charge, and<br/> saber-smite,</p>
<p>Desperate and glorious—aye, in defeat most desper-<br/> ate, most glorious,</p>
<p>After thy many battles, in which, never yielding up<br/> a gun or a color,</p>
<p>Leaving behind thee a memory sweet to soldiers,</p>
<p>Thou yieldest up thyself.</p>