David and Art - A Painting with Many Topics, Part 3

For a couple of weeks, we've been talking about a particular painting that embodied the phrase "manifest destiny". The painting is called Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way and when it was painted in 1861-62, a couple of different things were happening: Number one, the nation was being torn apart by the Civil War. Number two, the American people had reached the furthest frontier in their westward march across the continent. They had reached the Pacific Ocean, what looked to be a triumphant culmination. To my surprise, the painting showed up in my new George Dewey biography that just came out. I say "to my surprise" because I was very surprised to learn what I did. Going into the writing of the book I had no idea that painting would have something to say in that context. Here's How it came up.

Emanuel Leutze

"In November 1862, as Lieutenant George Dewey strolled the streets of occupied New Orleans, in Washington DC a dour-looking man with wavy hair. bushy mustache, and sleepy eyes climbed the marble staircase...in the US Capitol. He carried buckets and paintbrushes. His name was Emanuel Leutze, and he was an immigrant from Germany, having arrived...when he was nine years old. When he was 18...he began to study art, and in 1851. his massive painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware became a national sensation. In New York City 50,000 people lined up to see it and it made him the leading 'history painter' of his generation. Now he was painting a mural in the Capitol that would become 'the most epic of all his historical designs.'"

"In part because of Leutze's high-profile commission and his subsequent familiarity with politicians like...William Seward and even President Lincoln, his young son Eugene received an appointment to the Naval Academy...entering in 1863. Now, 35 years later in August 1898, that former US Naval academy cadet was Commodore Eugene H.C. Leutze...and he was sailing the powerful double turreted monitor USS Monterey into Manila Bay, bringing the title of his late father's famous painting quite literally to life.

What his painting helped me to see was that because of Dewey's triumph in May 1898 at the battle of Manila bay. 'Manifest destiny' leapfrogged all the way across the Pacific in a single bound. George Dewey didn't know it at the time, but his victory triggered a huge wave of public interest in making the Philippines part of the United States.

Turns out, what Leutze had painted 35 years earlier was only one manifestation of an American drive to go west, and let nothing, or non one, stand in its way.