(August 18, 1863 - March 18, 1930) was an American painter best known for his series of 78 scenes from American history, entitled The Pageant of a Nation, the largest series of American historical paintings by a single artist. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Stephen James Ferris, a portrait painter and a devotee of Jean-L??on G??rôme (after whom he was named) and Mariano Fortuny.He grew up around art, having been trained by his father and having two acclaimed painters, Edward Moran and Thomas Moran, as uncles. Ferris enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1879 and trained further at the Acad??mie Julian beginning in 1883 under William-Adolphe Bouguereau.He also met his namesake G??rôme, who greatly influenced Ferris's decision to paint scenes from American history. As Ferris wrote in his unpublished autobiography, "[G??rôme's] axiom was that one would paint best that with which he is most familiar". However, initially his subjects were Orientalist in nature, that movement having been in vogue when he was young. Some of his material was original, some of it took after Fortuny, but he was skilled enough, despite never having had any experience with Asia. In 1882, he exhibited a painting entitled Feeding the Ibis, which was valued at $600. By 1895, Ferris had gained a reputation as a historical painter, and he embarked on his dream of creating a series of paintings that told a historical narrative. In 1898 he sold one of these, General Howe's Levee, 1777, but he later regretted it, realizing that such a series could not be complete if the separate paintings could not be kept together. As such, he never sold another one of those, but he did sell the reproduction rights to various publishing companies. This later would have the effect of greatly popularizing his work, as these companies made prints, postcards, calendars and blank-backed trade cards use in advertisements. Laminated cards of these works were still being sold as late as 1984. The Landing of William PennThe paintings showed idealized portrayals of famous moments from American history, but were often historically inaccurate. The Landing of William Penn, for example, shows Penn being greeted at New Castle by American Indians who are clothed in the tradition of tribes from the Great Plains. In The First Thanksgiving 1621, the black outfits the Pilgrims are shown wearing are wrong, and the Wampanoag did not wear feathered war bonnets, nor would they have been sitting on the ground. The complete series was shown at Independence Hall in Philadelphia from 1913 to 1930, then moved next door to Congress Hall. In later years it was shown in a number of locations, including the Smithsonian Institution, before being returned to the Ferris family.  Related Paintings of Jean Leon Gerome Ferris :. | Building the Cradle of Liberty | The Landing of William Penn | The Birth of Pennsylvania 1680 | Captain Kidd in New York Harbor | Franklins Return to Philadelphia |
Related Artists:
Basawan
Indian Miniaturist, active ca.1556-1600,Indian miniature painter. One of the great talents to flourish under the emperor Akbar (reg 1556-1605), he was a prolific painter who contributed to virtually all the great illustrated manuscripts executed in the imperial workshops over a span of some 40 years. While most Mughal artists were concerned with the importance of line, colour and surface pattern, Basawan, with a greater understanding of the techniques of imported European works, developed a palette closer to that of European oil painting and dissolved outlines to create greater three-dimensionality. In his work, surface patterns are subservient to a dramatic spatial penetration of the picture plane. These traits were quite new within both Indian and Islamic traditions, and Basawan led the vanguard in adopting them. His work is remarkable also for the complexity of his compositions, his skill at giving roundness and density to his figures and his sensitive portrait-like faces.
john masefield
(born June 1, 1878, Ledbury, Herefordshire, Eng. ?? died May 12, 1967, near Abingdon, Berkshire) English poet. He went to sea in his youth, then lived precariously for several years in the U.S. before settling in London. He is best known for his poems of the sea, Salt-Water Ballads (1902, including "Sea Fever" and "Cargoes"), and for his long narrative poems, such as The Everlasting Mercy (1911), containing phrases of colloquial coarseness that were unknown in earlier 20th-century English verse. After he became poet laureate in 1930, his poetry became more austere. He also wrote adventure novels, sketches, and works for children.
TASSEL, Jean
French Baroque Era Painter, ca.1608-1667 Son of Richard Tassel, with whose works his own were for a long time confused. He trained with his father and by 1634 was recorded in Rome, where he came into contact with his fellow Frenchmen Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin and Sebastien Bourdon. Like the last he was influenced by the Bamboccianti, and he painted a number of low-life genre scenes at this period; these include Singers in a Tavern (Kassel, Schloss Wilhelmshehe) and Travellers Attacked (Warsaw, N. Mus.). He had returned to Langres by 1647, the date of his marriage, and continued to paint genre pictures after this, such as The Sawyers (Strasbourg, Mus. B.-A.) and The Marauders (Langres, Mus. St Didier). Other influences from Rome include Caravaggio, strong in a picture such as the Fortune-teller (sold Paris, Drouot, 1 April 1987, ) but far less apparent in the Presentation of the Infant Jesus (Dijon, Mus. B.-A.) and Tobias and the Angel (Dijon, Mus. B.-A.). However, the most lasting influence was that of the Romano-Bolognese school, seen in later pictures such as the Annunciation