John Rowson Smith

Background

He was born on May 11, 1810 at Boston, Massachussets, United States, the son of Elizabeth Pepperal (Sanger) and John Rubens Smith. His family removed in 1814 to Brooklyn.

Education

John Rowson studied at a private school at Brooklyn and in his father's drawing academy, which was later moved to Philadelphia.

Career

He made sketches at Pottsville which his father engraved and published, but because of a family misunderstanding he left home and apprenticed himself to the scenic artist of the National Theatre, Philadelphia.

Although he painted much scenery for theatres in New Orleans, St. Louis, and other cities from 1832 on, he became interested in experimenting with the panorama, invented probably by Robert Barker, an Edinburgh artist, about 1787. His panorama of Boston, designed to give people of interior towns successive views of a seaport, was mechanically but not financially successful; in "The Conflagration of Moscow, " his next attempt, he used transparent colors on muslin to simulate fire. Meantime, he had made carefully detailed sketches of Mississippi river scenes, which were worked up at Boston into a huge panorama. It was burned after a brief exhibition in Boston in 1839, but the artist cherished the idea of repainting it.

In 1843 he became scenic artist at Castle Garden Theatre, New York, where he had prosperous years. He was one of those interested in the socialistic plans of Robert Dale Owen, serving as president of the New York society for their furtherance. In 1844 he completed his panorama of the Mississippi from the Falls of St. Anthony to the Gulf of Mexico. Shown at Saratoga, it earned $20, 000 in six weeks, and, after touring the United States with it, in 1848 in partnership with John Risley, acrobat, he took it abroad. In London the work was in spirited competition with another Mississippi panorama, painted by John Banvard.

By invitation of Queen Victoria he showed the piece at Balmoral, and thereafter to huge audiences in England and on the Continent. While showing his panorama in Europe he made for American use a "Panorama of the Tour of Europe, " which inspired a long poetic tribute in the Philadelphia Inquirer, November 11, 1853. To it was added, in 1854, "The Siege of Sebastopol. "

After his return from Europe, he bought and occupied a large farm at Carlstadt, where he entertained many guests. He painted scenery for a number of New York theatres: the Broadway in 1847, the Bowery and the National in 1856, and the Bowery again in 1862. He also had much employment winters at southern theatres.

In 1864, while at work at the Arch Street Theatre of Louise Lane Drew in Philadelphia, he fell victim to pneumonia and died.

Achievements

• John Rowson Smith was the first noted American creator of moving panoramas. His subjects were generally American landscapes, and because he exhibited widely in Europe as well as the United States, it was said that he brought the New World to the Old World. Very little of his work survives today, the most famous are "Panorama of the Tour of Europe", "The Siege of Sebastopol".

Personality

He was an industrious worker.

Connections

He married in Philadelphia, on January 5, 1841, Emma Louise Broughton.

Spouse:

Emma Louise Broughton

Partner:

John Risley