Liberator-Hero Analysis: Eulogies and Portraits

What is a Liberator Hero? Circa 18th-19th c. Usually male Usually with military experience Intended to become a symbol (real or imagined) of what the revolution stands for) Reflects standards of the time Portrayed through portraits and eulogies

George Washington Gilbert Stuart, one of the most noted portraitists of his time. April 12, 1796 8 feet by 5 feet Why didn’t Stuart choose to paint Washington in uniform?

George Washington Facial expression? Clothing? Pose? Books on the floor? Table leg? The chair in the background? What is the overall image that Stuart sought to convey of Washington? Of the American Revolution?

Liberator-Hero Eulogy to George Washington Commissioned by the Massachusetts legislature and delivered in Boston’s Old South Meeting House by Fisher Ames

George Washington How does Ames portray Washington? When he spoke of Washington conducting “a civil war with mildness, and a revolution with order,” Ames was telling his listeners how HE wanted them to think about the nature of the Revolution…what was that?

George Washington To Ames, what was the true glory of the American Revolution? Think about how Ames was trying to portray Washington as a liberator-hero…

Jean-Paul Marat Jacques Louis David France’s best known Neoclassical painter and supporter of French Revolution Arranged funeral of Marat “one of the world’s most skillfully executed propaganda pictures

Jean-Paul Marat Why did he choose to show Marat this way? Bath water tinted with blood, the bloody wound, the knife on the floor, the note of Corday Why did David ignore the truth in his painting?

Jean-Paul Marat What image of Marat did David seek to communicate? What image of the French Revolution did the thousand who viewed the painting receive? Why were reproductions distributed by the thousands?

Jean-Paul Marat Eulogy delivered to the National Convention by a Marat ally, F. E. Guiraut Member of the Paris Jacobin club Most widely circulated

Jean-Paul Marat How did Guiraut portray Marat as a liberator-hero? What did Guiraut want the essence of the French Revolution to be? The name of the newspaper…L’Ami du Peuple…does Guiraut play on this title in the eulogy?

Toussaint J. Barlow Know nothing about the artist How can we use Barlow’s portrait to analyze what Haitians thought of Toussaint as a liberator-hero?

Toussaint Can we assume that Barlow painted Toussaint as he, himself, wanted to be portrayed? Clothing? Right hand rests on his sword? Haiti’s constitution? Background matter?

Toussaint What image of Toussaint Louverture did Barlow seek to communicate? What image of the Haitian Revolution?

Toussaint Louverture Part of 1814 manifesto written by Henri Christophe Rally Haitians to repulse French invasion of the island What lessons did Christophe intend that his readers learn from the life of Toussaint?

Toussaint Louverture What did Christophe think of Toussaint’s goal to have all live in relative equality in Haiti? What does Christophe see as the true meaning of the Haitian Revolution?

Simon Bolivar Describe what you see in this painting by Jose Gil da Castro. Compare this painting to the one of George Washington. How do you think Bolivar wanted to be remembered?

Simon Bolivar Dr. Calcano’s Oration at the reinterment of Bolivar (1876) Seeks to establish Bolivar’s role in Latin America’s greatness

Simon Bolivar How does Calcano use hyperbole to emphasize Bolivar’s greatness? How does he characterize Bolivar as a ‘liberator-hero’?

Conclusions What conclusions can you make about liberator heroes? How might you take this information and incorporate it within your baking?