How did the young, Virginia-born artist John Gadsby Chapman (1808-89) come to paint the massive "Baptism of Pocahontas" picture installed in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in 1840? This presentation will unravel the complex web of patronage that led Chapman to one of the highest honors in nineteenth-century American art. From his roots in Washington, DC, to the patronage of Louisiana-based cotton broker John Linton, to a fascinating partnership with Knickerbocker author James Kirke Paulding, Chapman strategically positioned himself at the center of the burgeoning New York art world. We will especially consider Chapman's most accomplished surviving early pictures, which have been in Natchez since the 1830s (and at St. Mary Basilica since the Civil War).

Speakers: Adam Erby, Executive Director of Historic Preservation and Collections at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, oversees the preservation and research of Mount Vernon’s historic core and world-renowned museum collections fulfilling the longstanding preservation mission of the MVLA. Erby retains his title as The Martha Washington Chief Curator. He will be joined by Lydia Mattice Brandt, professor of art and architectural history at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Brandt authored First in the Homes of His Countrymen: George Washington’s Mount Vernon in the American Imagination (UVA Press, 2016) and a guidebook to the SC state house and grounds. The pair is currently researching John Gadsby Chapman's "Baptism of Pocahontas" painting.