1      The Daily Intelligencer Bicentennial Commemorative Edition Volume II 10/27/1975 Col. 1-3 Page 118

 

Wanamaker paid Trego’s $160 commission

By GERALD THOMAS

When the painting "The Rescue of the Colors" was

first unveiled by the Bucks County Historical Society in

l899 in the county courthouse, the artist said his crea-

tion was in reality being "buried."

This spring, William T. Trego's famous painting will

have another unveiling of sorts when it is put back on

public display in the historical society library which is

undergoing construction changes.  In the library, the

painting will again be seen by the hundreds of people

who visit the nationally famous society and its Mercer

Museum in Doylestown almost daily.

The painting had been transferred from the

courthouse to the library in 1905 when the society

changed its headquarters.  This shift in location was

parallel to the change in the society from a small town

historical group to one of national prominence.  Today, it

is likely the artist, if alive, would feel his painting is no

longer buried and is to be displayed in a prominent

enough spot.

In a letter to Henry Thouron, an instructor at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Trego described

his feelings about his precious painting coming to Bucks

County:

The painting is to be buried in (unveiled they call it) in

the Bucks County Courthouse at Doylestown next Satur-

day (October, 1899). Train leaves Reading Terminal (in

Philadelphia) at 11 a.m.

There will be patriotic speeches.  There will be a brass

band, but no fireworks.  Cannot you and Mr. Harrison

Morris (the director of the academy) come to the funeral. 

If some of my friends do not come, I shall no longer have

one to sympathize with me.

Trego, who lived in North Wales, had wanted to ex-

hibit the painting in three major cities in the country

before it "was buried" in Bucks County, but he was un-

able to pry the big canvas out of Doylestown once it got

there.  An article in the North American, a newspaper, at

the time referred to it "as a picture on which particular

interest centers because the public has never been per-

mitted to see it at any of the noted exhibits."

In his letter to Thouron, Trego said, "Though it was

the understanding when I began the picture that I

would have the privilege of exhibiting the picture in

three cities in the United States, they now intimate their

$160 (the price paid for the painting) might be

damaged."

On the day the painting was unveiled, a telegram was

delivered to the artist from Morris:

Congratulations and regret cannot be with you today. 

Hope you will have opportunities to exhibit the picture.

Trego fervently hoped so, too.  But it was not to be.  On

Christmas, 1899, Trego wrote the academy in a rage:

I enclose my agreement with Gen. W.W. Davis for

painting the Rescue of the Colors, which please return to

me.

I painted the picture at the lowest possible price as a

favor to Davis, my native country and its soldiers of the

rebellion.

Davis never paid a cent toward the frame or picture,

but beat up John Wanamaker (the benefactor who gave

the painting to the county) to pay for the picture and E. R.

Artman and Capt. E G. Cadwallader to beg money to pay

 for the frame.

Davis never made any provision for exhibiting

the picture with the authorities of the county, it seems,

and I had to almost steal an opportunity to have it

photographed while it was at Earle's (an art dealer who

handled the painting before it was brought to

Doylestown).  Thanks to Mr. Earle, Davis even says he did

not know l had a written agreement with him.

I also enclose the resolutions refusing me the right to

exhibit.

I have answered them telling them practically that they

are fools and that they had better go where the climate

will be more comfortable during the winter, so you see

my communication is cut off there.

I don't see that it is possible to do anything with such

people and cannot suggest a course to be pursued.

But I wish as a favor if you can find the time that you

would write me some sort of letter to show that l still

have respectable friends.  Perhaps they may come down. 

Their resolutions are a mere bluff to get rid of me or

make trouble for me.  I made the general design for the

frame and it was surrounded by a suitable shadow box to

protect it at exhibitions.

Capt. C.G. Cadwallader is general ticket agent at Broad

Street Station (in Philadelphia) and l take him to be a

gentleman.  l do not know Wanamaker except through a

complimentary letter on my success.

I guess Alfred Paschall, secretary of the historical socie-

ty, is all right.  But Davis, as I understand, since the

presentation of the picture in Doylestown is a vain snake

in the grass.  He is president of the historical society.

I have been counting on exhibiting the picture, and it

is a very great disappointment to me that things have

turned out as they have, but you see it is impossible to

comply with such demands.

P.S. Please return the resolutions as I wish to keep them

among my curiosities.

The artist, whose father Jonathan was born in

Pineville and also an artist, probably held bitter feelings

against Bucks County his entire life. But bitterness

characterized much of Trego's life.

At the age of 51, he killed himself, according to

historians.  But the obituary in the New York Times said

the noted painter and sculptor died of overexertion and

an attack of vertigo brought on by the excessive heat

(the incident happened in June).  The suicide apparently

RESCUE OF THE COLORS - BIA2775B.GIF

was hushed up because of the social taboos of the time.

Historians say no doubt his action was triggered by

depression brought on by the stiffling heat, but there

were other factors involved: his realistic style of pain-

ting was becoming unfashionable and even more impor-

tant he was finding it increasingly difficult to care for

himself.

For Trego was physically handicapped.  According to a

Philadelphia newspaper he became paralyzed at the age

of 18 months when a doctor gave him a dose of calomel

to help him through a teething trial.  Both hands were

left twisted and out of shape.

Despite his handicaps and the difficulties he had in

painting, he knew from early childhood he wanted to be

an artist.

Trego was born in Yardley.

At the age of 19, Trego painted a major work, "The

Charge of Custer at Winchester."  A newspaper review-

ing the work at the time called the "boy painter" a

genius and said a brilliant future was before him.

Encouraged by his first success, he enrolled in 1879 at

the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. 

Later, he went to Paris where he avidly soaked up the

museums and galleries and limped about sketching.  His

crippled French contemporary, Toulouse Lautrec, was

painting in Paris at the time, but there is no evidence

the two met.

Throughout the 1890s, Trego painted prolifically,

mostly battle scenes of the Revolutionary, Civil and

Franco-Prussian wars.  More than 200 paintings came

from his studio.  One of the most notable was

"Washington Reviewing the Troops at Valley Forge,"

which now hangs in the museum of the Valley Forge

Historical Society.

The painting, The Rescue of the Colors, was avidly

received in ceremonies in Doylestown in 1899.

Judge Harman Yerkes in his speech of acceptance

pointed out:

The pride of our country is augmented by the cir-

cumstances that the artist, who has so successfully and

grandly risen to the requirements of a great occasion,

and enlarges his own frame on this canvas, is himself one

of her own sons...This picture, in the custody of the

Historical Society, will be preserved in their rooms (and

soon we hope to possess an appropriate building) along

with those implements of the peaceful pursuits of

agriculture, which in the hands of our ancestors were

used to conquer the forests.

The people attending the ceremonies probably did not

know the artist was raging.

 


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