370

James Walker (1818-1889), Artillery Maneuvers, 1881
Dimensions: 30 1/2 x 50 1/4
Framed/base Dimensions: 41 1/2 x 61 3/4 x 5
Signature: signed and dated lower left: James. Walker. 1881.

oil on canvas
30 1/2 x 50 1/4 in.

  • Provenance: Private Collection, Oklahoma
    Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (label verso)
    Collection of William B. Ruger, Connecticut, 1997
    Christie's New York, December 2002, Lot 169 (label verso)
    Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
    From a Private Collection
  • Literature: Edan Milton Hughes, Artists in California: 1786 - 1940, Hughes Publishing Company, San Francisco, CA, 1989, vol. II, p. 586
  • Notes:

    James Walker was born in Northamptonshire, England, on June 3, 1818. He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1823, settling in Albany, along the Hudson River. Little is known of his original training, but the artist is said to have studied painting in New York City and to have spent much of his youth there.

    In his early twenties Walker left home and traveled, first to New Orleans and then to Mexico where he became interested in the culture and people of Spanish America. The outbreak of war between the United States and Mexico occurred while he was living in Mexico City and he was imprisoned briefly. After escaping, Walker worked as an interpreter for General Winfield Scott and was present at the capture and occupation of Mexico City. It was here that he began an exciting and lucrative career sketching battle scenes.

    The Civil War found Walker again in the thick of the fray. His best-known works are a result of his participation in the war. This particular painting, Artillery Maneuvers, was painted many years after Walker had worked for General Scott, but his memory and his sketches from the battlefield served him well. In this painting, the men are charging forward with weapons drawn, in a maneuver of the troops. Walker’s attention to detail can be observed throughout the entire canvas but it is particularly visible in the uniforms of the soldiers. The men are in their official parade dress, some sitting in four-horse carriages known as “wheelies.” Although the painting was done in 1881, these uniforms closely resemble those that Walker would have seen during the Mexican War of 1846-1848. They also represent the contemporary uniforms of the 1880s.

    From 1881 through 1903, the uniform of the U.S. Army of the West included a cap for the enlisted foot troops with pompon (white for infantry and scarlet for artillery), and a helmet for enlisted cavalry, light artillery, and signal service personnel. The officers’ caps were surmounted by white or scarlet feathers, respectively, for infantry and heavy artillery. Light artillery officers together with cavalry officers followed the lead of enlisted men in terms of scarlet or yellow plumes respectively. Facing on the dress coats issued to other ranks included yellow for cavalry, scarlet for artillery, and medium blue for infantry. The men in this painting wear the red pompons of General Winfield Scott’s Artillery Troops, an elite unit serving a famous general.

  • Condition: The painting appears to be in good condition with some craquelure throughout the lighter colored areas and a faint stretcher bar indentation running vertically at the center. The painting was viewed under blacklight and reveals halos of inpainting behind each figure's head and scattered inpainting throughout the sky. The painting has been lined. The frame appears to be in good condition with flaking, some cracking, chips, and loss at the corners and a missing piece of molding at the lower right corner.

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