There is possibility that this work will be rendered by Artist

Claudia DeFranko,

in a Store window in Main Street Salem.

B Scott Crawford will engage folks at the reception with a DaVinci style analysis.  This event will take place at Tinkerings, Main Street Salem, during the Festival.

The Results of a Very Special Trip to the National Gallery of Art

Last month I wrote about celebrating Gathering in the Gallery’s one-year anniversary.  I shared a small portion of a year’s worth of research related to the painting that served as the focus of discussion for the first Gathering, Linton Park’s The Burial.  To recap, over the year I discovered that in actuality the scene depicts an exhumation of a Union soldier and not the burial of a soldier.  The painting also successfully juxtaposes the loss of the nation with the loss of a family.  Set within a more accurate socio-historic context, the meaning of the painting morphs into a reflection of two important post-Civil War themes and topics:

1) the attempt for Americans to grapple with the massive loss the war produced while still remembering individual soldiers and families;

2) the national cemetery movement and the desire of Northern families to ensure that their loved ones who died fighting in the South were discovered, exhumed, and relocated to a burial site more fitting for their service.  From this perspective, the work takes on greater meaning and importance.

I felt the need to see the painting in person; all I had worked with up to this point were digital images. While digital images have a place in the study of art, they do not carry the weight the actual work possesses.  I felt compelled to see the work in order to feel a sense of completion and closure. However, the work has not been on display for some time and is in storage at the National Gallery of Art.  If I were to see the painting, it would not be a matter of simply visiting the museum.  I would have to contact the museum and see if the staff could work it out for me to see it.  I emailed the museum, and to my surprise within two days an assistant curator replied and told me that while the painting was in one of their vaults; it would be no trouble for me to schedule an appointment to see the work.  I replied immediately, and we worked out a date and time.

On October 25 I was fortunate enough to be taken literally into the bowels of the National Gallery of Art to see the mistitled painting The Burial.  The Burial was hung at the top of a large screen, about 15 – 20 feet off the ground.  The assistant curator brought out a ladder that I needed to use to view the work.  Like Indiana Jones I climbed the ladder to reach my goal. In short, the experience was moving and amazing.

The painting itself was all I imagined. The digital images I had been using were quite good, although the painting itself was not nearly as brightly colorful as some of the images to which I had been referring.  The tents in the clouds were quite clear.  The facial features seemed more realistic than in the digital images.  The blouse the woman over the grave wears is clearly red while some digital images make the clothing have an orange tint. What was most interesting was that the writing on the marker the older man holds was exceptionally clear and larger than what I had imagined.  It, along with museum records, strengthened my belief that the last name on the marker is “Nobis” and not “Norris.” If this is true, then the last name, which was not the name of any soldier who fought in the war, could be a Latin word rather than a last name.  Nobis is Latin for “us,” which coincidently are the letters U and S (US) and could indicate for whom this soldier died. He died for the United States and ultimately for us.

While seeing the painting in person was a wonderful experience, another exciting part of my trip was when the assistant curator worked it out for me to be able to view the file on the painting!  What I found most interesting were the letters related to the title of the painting that museum staff and various individuals had exchanged during the 1970s and, particularly, in 1981.  I knew that the painting had been given numerous titles over the years since Park painted it around 1890.  I had also known that the title The Burial had not been assigned to the painting until1982. However, what I had not known were some of the other titles that had been used to reference the work over the years or how the title The Burial was chosen.  The file made all of this clearer.

First, according to letters in the file, the titles Widow at Grave of Civil War Soldier, Soldier at Rest, and Grave of A. Norris had all been used over the years as titles for what is currently being referred to as The Burial.  While Soldier at Rest is somewhat fitting, even though the soldier is only at rest momentarily as he is about to be exhumed and moved to a final resting place, the other two titles are as inaccurate as The Burial.  Widow at Grave of Civil War Soldier is flawed, as neither of the women in the scene are widows.  The woman standing above the grave flailing her arms is presumably the soldier’s mother.  This is evident due to her age as she has wrinkles on her face and some evident gray hair.  She is most likely the wife of the older man standing near her, who is in turn the soldier’s father.  The younger woman lying across the grave is not the deceased soldier’s wife as her clothing is not accurate for her to be a widow.  She is not wearing mourning garments.  A widow was expected to wear mourning garments for two years after a husband died.  Mothers were expected to wear mourning garments for one year after a son died.  The mother in the painting has advanced from heavy to full mourning, as indicated by the white trim on her sleeves and collar.  This indicates that the scene is unfolding somewhere between six and twelve months after the soldier died.  Thus, if the woman lying across the grave were the widow, she should still be in mourning garments.  There is no widow in the scene.  The woman on the ground is a sister, a cousin, or possibly a close friend, but she is not the wife of the deceased soldier.

As for the title Grave of A. Norris, it is not a given that the last name is Norris.  In fact, the name on the marker strongly resembles Nobis; the presumed “rr” is in all likelihood a “b.”  Throughout the file on the painting in the museum the name Nobis is used as opposed to Norris.

There was one other title tied to the painting which was the official title the museum assigned to the painting possibly as early as 1953, when the painting was acquired by the museum, until1982.  This title, Dying To Night on the Old Campground was believed to be a painting that Park had done for the Marion, Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), in 1895.  It was this painting the museum thought it had in its collection, the one now referred to as The Burial.  In 1981 a new Linton Park painting came to light.  The painting appeared in the magazine Antiques and clearly, based on letters in the file, sent the curatorial staff scurrying.  The painting that came to light actually had a title written on it.  And what was the title?  It was Dying To Night in the Old Campground (pictured below)! It      became quite clear to the staff at the National Gallery of Art that the painting they had and that they had thought for almost three decades to be Dying To Night was in fact a different painting.  Throughout 1981 the staff tried to clarify this matter and determine if they had embraced the wrong title for the painting.  In the end, they decided that their painting needed a new title.  In January 1982, the then curator of American art, assistant director/chief curator, and director of the National Gallery made a formal recommendation that the title be changed to The Burial.

According to one letter in the file from one of Park’s nieces, the museum learned that Linton Park had supposedly painted a work titled The Burial.  Since it was obvious that the painting they had in their possession was not Dying To Night, it was believed they had The Burial.  From 1982 until the present the painting has been known by that title.

But there is one more point of interest uncovered in the file.  In an excerpt from a master’s thesis by Kathryn Royer, submitted in 1941, Royer notes that in the painting Dying To Night in the Old Camp Ground, now The Burial:

“Several soldiers and a negro are waiting beside a carriageon the left.  In the background is a wide expanse of water with several boats in the far distance.  Several lacy pine trees and a large oak complete the composition with the exception of the sky, which is painted in a very decorative manner. There are many clouds in the sky and in each one can be seen a vision of white tents.  The colors used in this picture are much more brilliant than in any of the others done by Park.  The girl’s blouse is a vivid red and her skirt a soft grayed blue.  The soldiers’ suits are blue gray while the clothes of the father and mother are black and reddish brown.”

There are at least five issues about this excerpt and Royer’s scholarship.

First, Royer notes that there are “several soldiers” in the painting.  In The Burial that is in the National Gallery of Art, there is clearly only one soldier.

Second, Royer notes there are “several boats” on the water.  As with the issue with the “soldiers,” there are only two boats on the water, hardly “several.”

Third, Royer points out that there are many clouds and that in “each one” there are white tents.  In actuality, of all the clouds the tents appear in two cloud clusters; there are cloud clusters that do not contain tents.

Fourth, Royer states that the colors are exceptionally brilliant; however, the colors are somewhat subdued.

Fifth, the girl’s clothing is hardly a “vivid red,” it is red, but “vivid” is a strong adjective, and her dress is more of a white than a grayed blue.

These are five noteworthy “mistakes.” Indicating that several soldiers and several boats are in the composition is a rather huge mistake, while indicating that there are brilliant colors and a “vivid” red is used may be more of a subjective issue and not as relevant.  But collectively, an interesting suggestion and supposition emerges.  What if Royer was not guilty of shoddy scholarship, making mistakes as she took notes while observing the painting or simply misremembering the work?  What if Royer accurately described a painting by Park that she did indeed see?  This would mean that there is currently a lost painting by Park that is similar to the painting at the National Gallery of Art but that has several more soldiers in the composition, as well as a few more boats.  If more soldiers were present, then in all likelihood the scene depicted would have been the actual burial of a soldier!

Similarly, what if the niece of Park is correct and he did paint a work titled The Burial, but the work is the one that Royer observed?  Her description fits.  Possibly Park painted the actual burial of the soldier, which would have followed a battle and thus have witnessed a large number of soldiers present, and then painted the exhumation of the same soldier?  In this case, the two works would have been part of a larger narrative: a burial followed by an exhumation.  This is not too far beyond the scope of     possibility.  After all, from 1953 until 1981 the National Gallery of Art did not know that the real Dying To Night was in a private collection.  Is it too much of a stretch to think that another painting by Park is missing?  Also, as indicated in a letter dated December 4, 1981, to the National Gallery from one of Park’s relatives, “My father, Howard Park, now deceased, said that Uncle Linton was known to have made several paintings of one subject.”  The mystery continues!

In 1953 the National Gallery acquired what it thought to be Dying To Night.  Almost thirty years later, in 1981, the real Dying To Night was discovered and the National Gallery’s painting received the title The Burial the following year.  It is now 2011, almost thirty years after the National Gallery made that title change, and it is apparent the title needs to change one more time.  If it were up to me, I would title the painting The Exhumation.  In this manner, a short, concise title would clearly indicate what the scene depicts.  Possibly a better title for The Burial, though, is not The Exhumation, but Bury me not ‘neath Foreign Skies, which is the first line from the Civil War song “The Dying Soldier,” composed by E. Walter Lowe, 19th New York Cavalry.  Doing so will better capture the essence of what Park has chosen to depict in the painting and reflect the relationships that exist between his two known works related to the Civil War as Dying To Night is a line lifted from another Civil War ballad.  Either way, though, this painting needs to be renamed one last time.