… try to stop by the New Bedford Whaling Museum and see four-fifths of one of the largest paintings ever produced:
Image: New Bedford Whaling Museum Blog.
“Detail view of the port of New Bedford with the Seamen’s Bethel flag flying at left and the Greek Revival steeple of the First Christian Church clearly visible at right. NBWM #1918.27.1.2”On July 14, an artwork equal in length to 14 blue whales placed in a line will go on display in its entirety for the first time in more than half a century. Incidentally, those colossal creatures are central to the work. At 1,275 feet long, the Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World, which was painted in 1848 in New Bedford, Massachusetts by Benjamin Russell, an artist and merchant, and Caleb Purrington, a sign painter, is the longest painting in North America, according to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which is staging the work’s big return. …
Over the last three years, it has undergone extensive restoration work, having damage that it incurred over its action-packed life repaired. During the mid-19th century, the Panorama traveled to cities around the country—Boston, New York, and St. Louis, to name a few—and was exhibited as a lively, cinematic experience, often narrated by Russell himself over the course of a two-hour performance. The spools of painted cotton sheeting that comprise the work were furled and unfurled, revealing rich scenes of far-flung wonders, seen by Russell while working as a steerer on the Kutusoff, which set sail from New Bedford in 1841 and returned in 1845. The ship traveled to New Zealand, Tahiti, Cape Horn, and the Hawaiian Islands, among other distant locations, and Russell, entangled in many debts, created the fanciful Panorama with the hope that it could function as a commercial attraction. Audience members for these displays were “armchair travelers,” as Christina Connett, the Whaling Museum’s chief curator, put it. [ARTNEWS]
And then send me a letter telling me if it was worth the time!
