Alamo Paintings and Drawings

[Cole_blooded]

That Robert Everett Art piece inside the Alamo Church looking West is an incredible work of Art and the detail is nice!

TED COLE....aka....Cole_blooded

[neferetus]

bromhead24 said:

Here is a good rendering of the back of the church..I don't remember the history of the watercolor.

Bromhead, in this illustration, the Esparza family are supposed to be entering the Alamo through the same window as in the above painting, just off the sacristy.

[neferetus]

This powerful sketch by artist Richard P. Kluga is titled TO THE LAST MAN.

[neferetus]

This painting from 1900 has always intrigued me. Clearly, it's supposed to be
inside the doors of the Alamo church, although one of the statue niches has been
conveniently converted into a window. A number of Texians seem to be fighting
from behind Jim Bowie's sickbed---or is that a wall? The Mexican army has been
replaced by what appears to be a bunch of banditos with sombreros and no
semblance of a military unit at all. Outside the chapel door, to the right, the corner of
the Long Barrack can be seen. An Alamo nun meanwhile, crouches behind a very
young Jim Bowie. The artist's name is too small for me to read. Anyone?

(Oh, you may also notice that the gate has been broken outward---
doubtless by Texians trying to take it on the lam.)

[RebAl]

[Greg C.]

the guy in the buckskins in the top photo looks more like abraham lincoln then davy crockett.

[Cole_blooded]

Besides looking like Lincoln some there is also a strong resemblence to a younger Gregory Peck with a bit of facial hair!

TED COLE....aka....Cole_blooded

[Bromhead24]

I'm not sure who painted this, but it's pretty good

[Cole_blooded]

That is indeed a very good one and I liked how they did the morning clouds,but what is a little funny is how high the palisades wall is here.must be 10 feet or so! Do you know if there are any more scenes of the Battle for the Alamo by this Artist?

TED COLE....aka....Cole_blooded

[Bromhead24]

coleblooded said:

That is indeed a very good one and I liked how they did the morning clouds,but what is a little funny is how high the palisades wall is here.must be 10 feet or so! Do you know if there are any more scenes of the Battle for the Alamo by this Artist?

TED COLE....aka....Cole_blooded

Sorry Ted, I just happened upon this painting while surfing. If you notice the church is a bit out of scale, it should be larger or the Texians are over 7 feet tall.. ;D

[neferetus]

I kind of like this Alamo painting from THE STORY OF TEXAS. See how many familiar faces you can name.

[neferetus]

Joseph Hefter's overview of the Alamo battle.
It would have been lucky for the Texians had
the compound actually been that small.

[Greg C.]

neferetus said:

I kind of like this Alamo painting from THE STORY OF TEXAS. See how many familiar faces you can name.

i like this one too.

it would be a very historic drawing if not for the texas flag.

[neferetus]

Greg, you may notice that the very same flag is shown flying over Hefter's overview painting of the battle. While there does seem to be some historical basis for its existence during the revolution, there is no evidence that it was flying over the Alamo.

(NOTE: Dig out your ALAMO (2004) DVD. The very same Lone Star and Stripes flag is seen at San Jacinto.)

[Bromhead24]

neferetus said:

Joseph Hefter's overview of the Alamo battle.
It would have been lucky for the Texians had
the compound actually been that small.

It would of really worked to their (Texans) advantage if they moved the church up even with the long barracks..... ;D

[Bromhead24]

Dawn at the Alamo (1875)Henry Arthur McArdle
Like Lee at the Wilderness, the first version of Dawn at the Alamo survives only in the form of a photograph. It was destroyed in 1881 when the Texas State Capitol burned to the ground.






Dawn at the Alamo (1905)Henry Arthur McArdle
Although other artists had depicted famous scenes from the Alamo or the fort itself, Henry McArdle was the first to attempt to capture the entire battle scene on one canvas. He painted his first version of Dawn at the Alamo in 1875. The painting was critically acclaimed but could not find a buyer. McArdle lent the painting to the state of Texas, along with another large battle canvas, Lee at the Wilderness, in hopes that the state would eventually purchase the paintings. Unfortunately, they both were destroyed in the Capitol fire of 1881.

Recreating Dawn at the Alamo became something of an obsession for the artist. McArdle had twin, and sometimes conflicting aims for Dawn at the Alamo: to inspire patriotism, and to provide a historically accurate visual depiction of the battle. So while he labored intensively to research technical information about the fortifications, weapons, uniforms, and other details, he also intentionally departed from the historical record to make the painting more dramatic and symbolic.

Amidst the blood and chaos of the scene, the "Big Three" heroes of the Alamo are prominently depicted. On the lower left, Jim Bowie can be found rising from his sick bed to use his famed knife. On the lower right, David Crockett rushes into the fray, though not wearing his trademark coonskin cap and buckskins as in the 1875 version. The most significant change from the 1875 version was in the role of William B. Travis. In the second Dawn at the Alamo, McArdle greatly enhanced the physical size of Travis to make him the dominant figure in the painting.

Dawn at the Alamo was completed in 1905.

[neferetus]

The first mention of the "Lone Star and Stripes" flag that I can recall, appears in the Alamo chapter of author Richard Penn Smith's "Colonel Crockett's Exploits and Adventures In Texas", published in June, 1836. The flag is described by the Crockett character as having a white star upon a blue field with the letters T E X A S in white at each point of the star. The stripes are red and white.

While "Exploits", once thought by many to be Crockett's actual Alamo diary, was proven to have been penned by Smith, the writer's description of the flag must've been based upon some earlier reference.

[neferetus]

[neferetus]

Here's a painting of the Alameda, (now Commerce Street) southeast of Bejar, by German-born artist Hermann Lungkwitz. Done in 1854, it probably looks little different from when Sesma and his cavalry used it to screen themselves from Texian eyes on the morning of March 6, 1836.

[Bromhead24]

What direction are we looking in this photo, would the alamo be to the left?