War of 1812 BATTLE of LAKE ERIE Oliver Perry ~ Old 1866 Art Print Engraving RARE

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

War of 1812 BATTLE of LAKE ERIE Oliver Perry ~ Old 1866 Art Print Engraving RARE:
$24.99

BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE

Artist: Alonzo Chappel _________________ Engraver: W. H. Powell

IMAGE IS MUCH SHARPER AND CLEARER THAN SCAN SHOWS !!

PERFECT FOR FRAMING AS AN ART PRINT FOR YOUR DEN !!

VERY ANTIQUE & OLD WORLD LOOKING. ITEM(s) OVER 135 YEARS OLD!!

The Battle of Lake Erie was fought on September 10, 1813 (during the War of 1812) and represented the culmination of a series of moves by the U.S. designed to challenge British supremacy in the Great Lakes region. The battle was fought in and around Put-in-Bay, near the western extremity of Lake Erie. The area had fallen under control of British forces through their occupation of Detroit on August 17, 1812, and their subsequent construction of a strong fleet of warships. In March 1813 the American naval officer Commander Oliver Hazard Perry and a force of men arrived at Erie, Pennsylvania, under orders to construct an American fleet capable of meeting the British. The American fleet, completed early in September, consisted of nine vessels with a total armament of 54 guns and manned by about 500 men.

The initial encounter with the British fleet, composed of six vessels mounting 63 guns and commanded by Commodore Robert H. Barclay, occurred about noon on September 10. In the course of the ensuing action, which is regarded as one of the severest in the early annals of the U.S. Navy, the British concentrated their fire on the USS Lawrence, Perry\'s Flagship. As a result of some tactical errors on the part of the commanders of some of the craft supporting Perry, the Lawrence was badly damaged by the British fire, and more than 100 men were killed or wounded. Perry transferred his Flag to the USS Niagara shortly after 2:30 PM, leaving the disabled Lawrence under the command of a lieutenant. The action continued at close quarters, with all units of both fleets engaged. Around 3:00 PM, Barclay\'s Flagship, HMS Detroit, surrendered with three other British vessels. The remaining two attempted to escape but were overtaken and captured. One hour later Perry sent his famous dispatch to General William Henry Harrison, U.S. commander of the Army of the Northwest: \"We have met the enemy and they are ours.\" American casualties numbered 123 killed and wounded; British losses totaled 135. Within three weeks after their defeat, the British were forced to evacuate Detroit. The U.S. Army eventually won control of almost the entire Great Lakes region, thus securing the area then known as the Northwest.

William Henry Powell, an Ohio artist who had studied with Henry Inman in New York City, received a coveted commission in 1847: the last of the historical paintings for the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. His subject, Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto A.D. 1541 , was completed in 1853. As Henry Tuckerman wrote in his 1867 Book of the Artists , it was “a commission bestowed upon him rather in deference to his Western origin than because of priority of claim in point of rank or age.” That is, the new political clout of the Northwest Territory had made itself felt. This national success led his home state to commission Powell in 1857 to paint Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie for the rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. The work was completed in his New York City studio. The artist let it be known that he had used as models men from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and had sought authenticity in all the nautical details of the picture, an effort for which he was praised. The picture was installed in Columbus in 1865, whereupon the Joint Committee on the Library commissioned Powell, on March 2, 1865, for a painting “illustrative of some naval victory,” to be placed at the head of the east stairway in the Senate wing of the Capitol. It seems certain that he was expected to repeat his Ohio Statehouse subject on a larger scale. He did so, painting it in a temporary studio inside the U.S. Capitol and completing it in 1873. For this version, it appears that Powell used as models workers then employed at the Capitol. Powell chose as his subject the moment when Perry made his way from his severely damaged Flagship, the Lawrence , in a rowboat through enemy fire to the Niagara . Powell enlarged the crew of the boat, showing six oarsmen, a helmsman, Perry, and Perry’s 13-year-old brother, Alexander, who served as Perry’s midshipman. Sources do not agree on whether Alexander in fact accompanied his brother in the rowboat, but it must have seemed an irresistible addition. In the painting, Alexander grasps his brother’s coat as if to pull him to sit, as the helmsman also urges with a gesture. Perry does not carry his battle Flag; the artist chose instead to fly the Stars and Stripes from the boat’s bow. This is stirring, if inaccurate, as the “colors” were not taken from the Lawrence . One of the oarsmen is an African American. Although Tuckerman identifies him as “Perry’s black servant, Hannibal,” who responds to a near-hit in “evident consternation,” his inclusion is more likely dictated by the date of the painting–-immediately post-Civil War and emancipation–-than by the reality of 1813. In addition to the heroic figures in the rowboat, Powell shows three figures on the abandoned Lawrence , along with a dead sailor in the flotsam between brig and boat and a doomed figure in the water at the right side. To judge from the Flags, three British ships are clustered from the left to the center in the background, and five American ships are grouped from the center to the right. Many sailors are seen in those ships. Powell’s most expressive work is found in the indistinct background, seen through gunsmoke and haze; in the water; and in the corpse atop the tangled flotsam. Powell sacrifices spatial unity, however, by ignoring the middle ground. Thus, the diagonal that is meant to lead the eye from the Lawrence through the rowboat to the distant Niagara fails to do so, despite Perry’s rhetorical pointing gesture. Although the commodore’s heedless action of standing in the boat had exposed him as he headed for the Niagara , “Perry’s luck” became legendary. The heroic stance, as presented by Powell, may seem overdone to the modern viewer, but it was not out of step with dramatic conventions of the period. For example, Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware portrays George Washington similarly.

SIZE: Image size in inches is 5 1/2\" x 8\", overall page size is 6 1/2 \" x 9 1/2\".

CONDITION: Condition is good. Nothing on reverse. Thick rag stock cardboard type paper.

SHIPPING: Buyers to pay shipping/handling, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular mail.

An engraving is an intaglio process of printing, with the design to be produced is cut below the surface of the plate (made of copper, steel or wood), and the incised lines are filled with ink that is then transferred to paper. The portraits on our currency are good examples of engraved images. A Photogravure is an intaglio process in which the plate is produced photographically. Please note: the terms used in our sales for engraving, heliogravure, lithograph, plate, line drawing, photogravure etc. are ALL images that have been printed on paper.

THIS IS AN ACTUAL STEEL ENGRAVING PRINTED IN THE 1860\'s!

A RARE FIND!