General Marion in his Swamp Encampment Inviting a British Officer to Dinner
Not on view
In 1838, New York City businessmen and society leaders conceived of an institution to champion living American artists. Incorporated in 1840 as the Apollo Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts, the group held exhibitions and developed a subscriber base. For five dollars a year, members were given unlimited access to exhibitions, received one large engraving of a recent painting, and were entered in a lottery of original art works. In 1840, John Blake White's Revolutionary War subject, "General Marion in his Swamp Encampment" (undated; U.S. Senate), was chosen for reproduction. We see the American general Francis Marion, known as the "Swamp Fox," offering a humble dinner of sweet potatoes to a captured British officer. Sartain's related engraving was distributed to 646 subscribers in 1841. In 1844, the Apollo Association would merge with, and adopt the name of, the American Art-Union.
