The American Panorama Company of Milwaukee created the Battle of Missionary Ridge panorama. It was mentioned in the “Bad Lands Cow Boy” (Medora, North Dakota, July 22, 1886, page 3). The article reported, “The Battle of Atlanta was chosen as the second subject for the artists brush, and with better acquaintance with each other, and a wider familiarity with the methods of warfare adopted in this country, and with the men who participated in the civil war, results have been accomplished in “Atlanta” which exceed those presented in any previous painted panorama.”
Here is what I find fascinating – they acknowledged the need for a warm up to better acquaint the immigrant artists with each other, all the while hoping to produce a truly monumental work of art. There was Wehner’s understanding that not all talented artists would work well together. Any type of paint studio needed to find a productive rhythm. That was as true then as it is true now. Wehner realized that many members of his newly formed immigrant staff had never worked together before. He obviously understood the potential for conflicts between individual skills, differing creative processes and artistic temperaments. Wehner needed a close-knit artistic community to ensure the success of the American Panorama Company and its anticipated project, The Battle of Atlanta. Otherwise, a quickly assembled staff could cost him time and money while he would be left to referee internal squabbles within his staff. The nuance of every artist’s technique needed to be fully explored prior to painting the Battle of Atlanta. Therefore, he created a warm-up project. Think of it as either spring training for baseball or making pancakes. The first pancake on the griddle may often flop. Just as the pan needs to reach the right temperature, a team of painters needs to warm up to each other to succeed.
There was also a blend of different ethnicities and languages in his studio. I have to wonder if English or German was there a common language. Was it necessary to have a common language at all? Having led an all-male paint crew in Japan, there is a certain amount of the artistic process that needs no verbal communication. A lot can be accomplished with pointing to a design, then the mixed paints, and finally pointing to a canvas or wall. Plus, these were all professionals, familiar with large-scale paintings and the necessary tools. As with F. W. Heine, most would have arrived with their own brushes in hand.
However, there is an entertaining tale that illustrates the art of communication in the American Panorama Studio. It is from “How A Great Panorama is Made,” an article by Theodore R. Davis, that was sent to me by Gene Meier. Remember, Davis was the individual who recorded many images of the Civil War and later worked for the American Panorama Company. As it deals with this particular cyclorama, it provides a little historical context and the dynamics in Wehner’s panorama studio.
To set up the story, Wehner does what many supervisors do – keep people busy. In many instances, I have tried to make sure that people remain working when they are “on the clock,” helping out with anything. The problem is to never get distracted and leave these people to their own devices. If you think that you have just assigned busy work, or something that is “fool proof” to screw up, think again. Learn from Wehner’s mistake.
Here is the excerpt from “How a Great Panorama is Made.”
“A portion of our picture, “The Battle of Missionary Ridge,” was left thus blank and bare, and was most disturbing to the German Professor who was chief artist. His eye so distracted and troubled by it that he one day directed some of the loitering models to take some color, “any color,” he said and “scumble over the surface to tone it down.” The models, dressed as Union and Confederate soldiers and officers, worked industriously for twenty minutes, when it was suddenly discovered that they had emptied three fifty-dollar cans of cadmium and were opening a fourth! A half-dollar’s worth of cheap house-paint would have been better, for no preparation had been used to make the cadmium dry, and it was still soft when the panorama was sent for exhibition in Chicago. What the artists said when they discovered the models’ mistake was not plain to me, as it was spoken in German; but I know that they all talked at the same time and very vigorously.”
What is also fortuitous about this tale and the illustration was finding an almost identical sketch in the diary of F. W. Heine.
Heine and Lohr were the two German professors at the American Panorama Company who were in charge of the projects and artists. They would later partner to create their own studio. It noticed the similarity as I was sending Meier photos of the Heine diary pages that I photocopied in 2013. There is something wonderful about sharing a discovery, only to learn something else new from him about the subject matter. Meier explained that the first unit of Battle of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain was built on site in Cleveland. The second unit of Missionary Ridge was built in Milwaukee. He continued to explain that small waves of panorama artists were arriving from Germany and used George Peter as an example. Peter was told to first go to Cleveland to work on Missionary Ridge, then go to Milwaukee where the Battle of Atlanta was already under way. Missionary Ridge was truly a training ground used as an orientation for new members of Wehner’s paint staff.
To be continued…
The Heine diaries are the only know narrative of a panorama studio, that of William Wehner (1847-1928) of Chicago, who built his panorama studio in downtown Milwaukee. The artists were from Switzerland, Austria and Germany, yes, but they also represented the different Royal Academies of art–the Munich School, the Dusseldorf School, Leipzig and Dresden. Each of these schools had their own traditions, their owned famed professors, and aesthetic distinction (i.e. the “brown sauce” of the Munich School). The diaries , in the process of being translated to English by Michael Kutzer, give a delightful insight into how these German artists perceived one another–the artists of The Dusseldorf School , newly arrived, were their own clique in the Milwaukee studio. The German artists could be recognized by their accents and their stereotyped behavior: the Bavarian, the Saxon, the Prussian, the Hessian, the Oldenburger, the Schlesier (Niederschlesien, Oberschlesien, Austrian Schlesier). The German language is actually composed of many German languages. The East Prussian might not be understood in Hessen. The coinage of the German States epoch before the Frano-Prussian War was replaced by a national coinage. The railroads that were being built across the territories and frontiers of the United States had a different history than European railroads, which forced cities to condemn neighborhoods for the new roadway. Read the Heine diaries and begin to understand how these Germans viewed the world and understood one another.
The first MISSIONARY RIDGE by the Wehner/Heine & Lohr studio was made in Cleveland in 1885. Theodore Russell Davis, campaign artist for HARPER’S WEEKLY during the Civil War, not only would lead the important German panoramists on field trips to Chattanooga and Atlanta, but would write ALL the publicity for this panorama studio. Local writers who wrote about rotunda panorama made too many mistakes. But TRD already knew the theater of battle from decades past, had his notebooks and sketchbooks from the War to aid his memory, and immediately recognized and called upon his contacts from the War. Heine records that Davis chatted with architect John Merwin Carrere who designed the prototype of panorama rotundas to be used in USA; Adolph S. Ochs, young publisher of the CHATTANOOGA TIMES, later NEW YORK TIMES; and literally bumped into old friends who had high military rank , interviewed them for the panorama project (“Hello, Colonel.” “Why, hello, Davis”), discussing the strategy of battle and camp life,the sweeping terrain to be captured in paint on canvas, and their beloved horses.