Captain Gwinn's Portrait-- Part 2

Thomas Sully painted the portrait of Captain John Gwinn and his wife Caroline.  By his count, during his lifetime he produced 2,631 paintings.  Besides portraits, he also did landscapes and historical pieces.

  His painting "Portrait of  Anna and Harriet Coleman, sold for $145,000 in 2013.

The paintings of Gwinn and his wife were sold from the private collection of a Southern diplomat.

Good news in that the USS Constitution Museum bought both paintings for $19,000.  They said it was acquired from the James Severs collection.

John Gwinn died of chronic gastritis.

--Brock-Perry

There Are Paintings of Captain Gwinn and His Wife and Were at Auction in 2020

A few posts ago, I wrote that there were no known paintings of Captain John Gwinn of the USS Constitution.  While looking up more information on him, I came across a source that said paintings of him and his wife Caroline had been up for auction on November 21, 2020.

They had an estimated price of between $20,000 and $30,000 and auctioneers were Wooten & Wooten.  The one of Capt. Gwinn was made in 1839 and his wife's a few years later.

Thomas Sully painted them.  He was a famous artist living in Philadelphia who painted such subjects as Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and Marquis  de Lafayette.  Born in England in 1783 and emigrated with his family to Charleston, S.C.,  in 1792.  

Another of his subjects was Britain's Queen Victoria.    His Adams portrait hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  Two of his Jefferson portraits are at the University of Virginia and at West Point.    

--Brock-Perry

John Whistler-- Part 4: A Military Family

In 1817, he moved toSt. Charles, Missouri and was military storekeeper at the Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis.

He died at Fort Bellefontaine in 1829.

John Whistler had 15 children and three became military officers.    Colonel William Whistler served from 1801-1861 and Lt. George Washington Whistler, a railroad designer in America and Russia.

Two of his grandsons were officers in the Civil War:  Brigadier General Joseph N. G. Whistler and Colonel Joseph Nelson Garland Whistler.

Another grandson, James Abbott McNeil Whistler attended West Point, but did not graduate.  He went on to become a famous artists ("Whistler's Mother")

Quite the Military Family.  --Brock-Perry

Tennessee's George Washington Campbell-- Part 3: His Wife Helps Remove Washington's Portrait from the White House

George Washington Campbell's wife, Harriet, made her own contribution to history during the British invasion of Washington, D.C..  Upon hearing news of the impending arrival of the British Army, Mrs.Campbell urged her friend, Dolley Madison, to leave the White House.

With the help of Harriet Campbell and Charles Carroll, Mrs. Madison removed the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington from its frame and fled before the British burned the house and the city of Washington.

Wonder if It Had Something to Do With Her Husband's Name?  --Brock-Perry