Marion Crossing the Pedee
Not on view
Two flat boats transport horses and soldiers here across the Peedee River in South Carolina in 1778, with a Black man at the oars. The print reproduces Ranney's painting (1850; Amon Carter Museum), which describes the covert preparations made by American Revolutionary troops under Brigadier General Francis Marion, known as the "Swamp Fox," before engaging British forces led by Lieutenant General Banstre Tarleton. This print was published by the American Art-Union, a New York institution that boasted nearly nineteen thousand subscribers at its height in 1849-50. For an annual fee of five dollars, each member received a large, finely engraved, print and was entered in a lottery to win original artworks which were exhibited at the Art-Union's Free Gallery. Aimed at educating the public about contemporary American art, the group's distribution network reached every state. This contributed to the creation of a national market for landscapes, genre paintings, and small bronze sculptures. The system flourished for a limited period, however, with no lottery taking place in 1851, the year that this print was announced as part of a set of small engravings titled "Gallery of American Art, No. II." It was not published until 1853, the year that the Art-Union was forced to dissolve.
