| Show rt it h 0 W nc ra 0 k X kl R Z gai 14 3 4 Z R P me 14 t N R q 7 t 41 A I 1 13 IM P r MIN MAW go by obder george G meade levy ca et 1836 k 4 TZ 4 U F qa k we Z D 0 ta by cadet US 1641 and the story of one who but who rose to worldwide world wide fame as a painter I 1 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON kv iri EVER you visit the United States tary academy be sure to inick tant ode they take you to the X me N A mr N whistler 1553 where the cabets cadets receive their in all courtesy cited att military in drawling drawl ng for a thrill 4 awaits you there hung chulig upon the walls nalla of those is a re rc collection of pen sketches water colors crayon drawings and baah w I 1 sh drawings the rhe subjects subject of these I 1 pl pictures coures may not interest you very much but if you step closer to one one of them to see eee who was the artist who made it you will have a surprise in store for instance In stanca there to Is the one which pictures a greek warrior of the ancient days down la in one corner of tile the picture Is a barely decipher able signature J DAVIS perhaps this melia anything an tiling tt to you ou especially until you see it a typewritten sheet inserted la in the other corner comer which reads reada as follows this picture drawn by jefferson Davis while a cadet at the U S M A vas vaa presented to me on august 13 1024 by sergeant starr retired for formerly of the bervice detachment tach ment now on the pollee police force of the state war and navy building at washington he informed me that when the old academic nead ernle building the one that stood on the site of the present west vest academic building was torn down that the drawing fell in the hands of some friend of hla his from whom he afterwards obtained it and that he be douglas newton starr made the framel frame from rom a part ot of a bannister railing of one of the stair in the old academic building sigi signed led fred W Fla laden flaulen clen major general superintendent so more than a hundred years ago this greek warriors portrait came caine from tile the pencil of a slender kovrig kentuckian appointed to the mill tary academy from mississippi in 1824 and graduated in 1828 who lind had his bis first military experience us a second lieutenant of infantry in the black hawk war in ID 1832 and who as a colonel of mississippi volunteers in the mexican war distinguished led himself at the battle of nn vista by an exploit which was ns to have haie much to d do 0 with his future career for jefferson daviss da great tt farne fame lies not in his career as a soldier but as a statesman lie was successively a member of f the united states house of rep representatives regen tat ives united states senator und and secretary of war and later in 1801 the Von confederate federate congress remembering the hero of 0 buena vista and daviss services in the war portfolio in president Ir pierces Pl erces calli cabinet fiet selected him for the position of president of the states states of america but the portrait of the greek warrior made fadz by jefferson davis Is biot the only ona one made by a cadet destined for future tame fame near it la Is a scene ln in an indian camp of the old days in the foreground a chief sIl lats holding his gayly deci ora ed pipe as ai lie dickers with ohp white trader wense filose wares of blankets knives and other trini bets are spread enticingly before him standing to one fine side Is an indian woman ian papoose in arms who seems much interested Interest Pd in the bargaining the birtist who ho depleted depicted this scene was waa cadet U II 11 grant a fruin tile the nent lemy in as 11 perhaps berh ipa most americans Amei kuns knoer him as U S grant those initials standing both for ulysses simpson and unconditional surrender but when h he e was nt at west point he be signed his name as U 11 grunt grant for ulysses niram was the he name which lila ills mother had given him close beside the drawing made by the tha future commander ln in ailef of 0 the union forces in the civil carls war Is one made by a man maa who next to by cadeki jefe aon dadja V 1 13 grant was the greatest leader ot of the boya la in blue it la Is a classical subject a greek warrior slaying a centaur and it ts Is signed by cadet william sherman Sher nian a graduate lo in the class or of 1838 not tar far away la a painting fainting of a different sort bort a water color picturing a riverside city an ancient walled waited town somewhere chere in italy it Is a painting of rare beauty ano and one which might well have coma from the brush of a dready eyed artist looking at its soft coloring it la Is difficult to realize that the hand which held the brush that put till this scene on canvas was the same hand which directed the movements of thousands of arme armed d men on the bloody battlefield tle field of gettysburg those tho se hot days of july 1 2 and 3 asca 1803 for this painting was made by cadet george C men meade do of the glass class of 33 whose victory over the great robert B E lee hee a fellow west pointer was still thirty years in the future but these drawings by artists who be became ca me great generals are not the only artistic treasures which adorn the walls of this west point classroom there too are examples of work by one ona artist who never became even so much na as a lieutenant but who did become one of the greatest american awe rican artists oi of all time once upon a time james abbott mcneil whistler humorously remarked had silicon been a noxious gas I 1 would have been a general today dack back of tills this remark Is clila history or of a brief career at west point 16 in 1852 whistler wag appointed to west polk point lie he was there thero for two years then came the fatal day when he and his classmates were taking an examination in chemistry was silicon a noxious gas or it that was one of the questions confronting tile the future ze general generas young Wb whistler istler guessed that it was and lie guessed wrong it la Is probable that it was only one of several sevell mistakes which he ninde mode in the examination at any rate lie he was found folind that is discharged from the academy for deficiency in n chemistry today a whistler Is one of the most prized posses possessions alons of public art galleries and private collectors and the united geates Billi military tary acad emy einy Js J the tM possessor sessor of not only one ona but five genuine 1 whistlers and what makes them even more valuable Is the fact that they are early whistlers they are all copies of dral drawings and paintings which whistler made from the work of recognized masters one of them shows a group before the door of a medieval castle with the lord of the manor distributing alms abins to the poor ken even more interesting la Is another of tits his sli fIns ciui tiui pretty italian girls gossiping tn in a doorway Alt although haugh this was a copy whistler showed his bis independent genius in an interesting way efly in copying the original he changed one of tile tho girls froni from a brunette to a blonde so as to give ghe variety to the picture and he painted in the shadowy figure of a young soldier at the end of the street so as to give ghe the girls glola something to gossip about surprising as it way may seem to some americana v t that the great american painter was once a west point cadet it might not be so surprising perhaps it if they knew kisilew of the military background of 0 family in 1758 there was waa born boin la in ireland of an old Engli english sli family of whistlers a boy to whom was given the name of john during the revolution he ran away from home and joined the army co coming m ing to america with the tha droops under burgoyne in lie ho was thus oua one of the members of f gentleman johnnys uio illo fated army which was captured by the americana at saratoga Ite returning turning to england whistler wis was dist discharged barged from fram the army and soon eoon afterwards after warda eloped with the daughter of one of lite his fathers father a friends believing that life in america offered greater opportunities for him he brought hla hili bride ito to this country and settled at hagerstown Hagers town md ald in 1791 he enter entered edthe the Ameri american cab army and served on the frontier of the old northwest under st SC claire wine wayne find others in 1803 the secre secretary tari of war ordered colonel hamtramck of the first infantry commander at Iet detroit rolt to send an and six men to establish a military post where the chicago river flows down into lake michigan colonel selected d for this duty capt john whistler and made him commander of the new post which was waa to be built there whistler arrived at the s site ite of the present city of chicago in august 1803 and began building the structure turo to which was oven given tile the name of fort dearborn in iii honor of the secretary odwar of war thus he became the founder of the first permanent settlement on the situ of the metropolis of the middle west and aid to him liliu historians have given the tha title of the fullier Fat Fut lier of chicago whistler was nus accompanied to chicago by his family ily one of them wash was a daughter barall who on november i married james abbott a det detroit it merchant the wedding which was performed by john kinzie was the birst marriage of oc white people in chicago another member of his bill family was a son george washington whistler then a toddling child three years old when this boy grew up ho he was sent bent to west ivest point and was graduated from the academy at the ngo age of nineteen ile he was assigned to tile the artillery branch of the service and after his resignation from the army in 1833 he rose to eminence as an engineer A yearn lear after whistlers resignation from the army it a son was born to him nt at lowell mass to this son was given the nor name neof of james abbott mcnell mcneil whistler and it was this boy who achieved in the reain of art an even greater reputation than had hla his father in engineering although the connection of whistler the artist with the lie history of fort dearborn and chicago Is not commonly known one historian has said the very cry names he bore served consi constantly antly to advertise it the abbott part of it was ft as in honor ad f james abbott abbotte Chi cagos first bride grown and the mcnell wai in donor bonor of col mcnell commander of fort dearborn from 1821 to 1823 mie artist himself new never saw chicago but with the exception of west point there was no other oilier place in the alia united states a which lie he was wag more interested writes al bl to la chicago and the old northwest lie regarded his grandfather grand rather tather as the founder of chicago and vi more re thaia chait one once lamented his failure to visit the place |
