John Rowson Smith

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John Rowson Smith
Born1810
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died1864
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Resting placeLaurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationPainter

John Rowson Smith (1810 – 1864) was an American painter and a pioneer in the creation of moving panoramas. His Leviathan Panorama of the Mississippi River was created in the 1840s, covered 20,000 square feet of canvas, and depicted approximately 2,000 miles of landscape along the Mississippi River that spanned nine states. The panorama was displayed at theaters in the United States and Europe from 1848 to 1852.

Early life[edit]

He was born in 1810 in Boston, Massachusetts. Most of his childhood was spent in Brooklyn before he moved to Philadelphia in 1830. He was taught painting by his father John Rubens Smith.[1] His grandfather was the British painter and mezzotinter John Raphael Smith.[2]

Career[edit]

Painting of Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania, by John Rowson Smith engraved by his father
View of Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Smith began as a scenery painter for the National Theater in Philadelphia. He also painted theatrical scenery in Boston, New Orleans, New York, and St. Louis.[2][3] He was a pioneer in the creation of moving panoramas[4] and produced the Leviathan Panorama of the Mississippi River[5] which covered 20,000 square feet of canvas and depicted approximately 2,000 miles of landscape along the river across nine states.[2][6] The panorama was divided into three parts: the "Corn Region" depicted the head of the river to the Ohio River; the "Cotton Region" depicted from the Ohio River to Natchez, Mississippi; and the "Sugar Region" depicted from Natchez to the Gulf of Mexico. The moving panorama was displayed in Troy, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and then throughout major cities in Europe from 1849 to 1852.[2]

Smith's panorama business partner was Richard Risley Carlisle, an acrobat who performed under the moniker Professor Risley. He and Smith claimed to be the originator of the Mississippi moving panorama,[7] however other rivaling panoramas of the Mississippi were created by John Banvard,[8] Henry Lewis, Leon D. Pomerede and Samuel B. Stockwell.[9] The panoramists competed for audience and made exaggerated claims about their work. Smith falsely claimed that his panorama was four miles in length.[10] None of these works, including Smith's, survived to the current day.[9]

He returned to theatrical scenery painting and died in Philadelphia in 1864.[2] He was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Naeve, Milo M. (1999). 150 Years of Philadelphia Painters and Paintings: Selections from the Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art. Dover, Delaware: Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art. p. 12. ISBN 1-893287-01-7. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e Arrington, Joseph Earl. "Panorama Paintings in the 1840s of the Mormon Temple in Nauvoo" (PDF). byustudies.byu.edu. BYU Studies. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  3. ^ "John Rowson Smith (1810-1864)". www.whitemountainart.com. John J. Henderson & Roger E. Belson. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  4. ^ Huhtamo, Erkki (22 February 2013). Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles. MIT Press. p. 176. ISBN 9780262313100 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Sandlin, Lee (2010). Wicked River - The Mississippi When it Last Ran Wild. Toronto: Vintage Books. p. xxvii. ISBN 978-0-307-47357-8. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  6. ^ Black, Patti Carr (1998). Art in Mississippi 1720-1980. University Press of Mississippi. p. 87. ISBN 1-57806-084-2. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  7. ^ Hanners, John (1993). "It was Play or Starve": Acting in the Nineteenth Century American Popular Theatre. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-87972-586-9. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  8. ^ Collins, Paul (3 January 2019). Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck. Macmillan. ISBN 9780312268862 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ a b Swift, Gabriel. "Looking at the West: Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley!". americana.princeton.edu. Princeton University. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  10. ^ Knopp, Lisa (2012). What the River Carries - Encounters with the Mississippi, Missouri, and Platte. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-8262-1974-9. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  11. ^ "John R. Smith". www.remembermyjourney.com. Retrieved 2 May 2024.

Additional reading[edit]

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