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(early study by bwp: small) (bwp final watercolor 27 x 19 cartouched) THE GUN FOUNDRY, 1886 J F. Weir (1841-1926) 46.5 x 62 in. oil Putnam County Historical
Society, “It is the fate of some artists to be born too soon or too late to fit the fickle moods of taste. Others have not been able to sustain their talent and have succumbed to the old saw that ‘those who can do, and those who can't teach.’ John Ferguson Weir in his later years suffered both these disasters and yet, by the time he was in his mid-twenties, was a full member of the National Academy and had painted the most important industrial picture of nineteenth-century America. It and several of his other works were far in advance of their time, but Weir was not able to keep in the vanguard. Time and taste rushed past him, and he became not even a great teacher, but ended up in the prosaic position of administrative director of the art school at Yale University. To his credit, as the first dean of this now distinguished art school, he developed it from nothing to a position of considerable importance. "Weir’s beginnings were auspicious. His father, Robert W. Weir, was teacher of drawing at the West Point Military Academy and one of the elders of the Hudson River School. The boy literally inherited a place in this distinguished school of American landscape artists, for under the tutelage of his father he was included in the explorations these artists made of the Hudson River Valley. By age twenty he had set himself up in the center of New York’s art world in the Tenth Street Studios. He became an associate of the National Academy at twenty-three by painting landscapes. A few years later this precocious young man set about an heroic task. The Civil War was at its height and the Parrott guns, which were the heaviest artillery then employed, were being cast in a huge foundry across the river from West Point. Weir’s inborn interest in the American scene led him away from the hills and woods and into this unlikely inspiration for art, the foundry. His fellow artists, older and established ones like John Frederick Kensett, Frederick Edwin Church, and Thomas Worthington Whittredge, encouraged his bold adventure. "Even the great Asher Brown Durand, made a trip to New Jersey to give him more encouragement. Weir did many sketches of the foundry and the workers, “And one night,” he wrote, “I spread my studies... on the walls and floors... I began to arrange the composition of the gun foundry in a large charcoal cartoon; cranes and rafters of the dusky place, with the foundry men lit up by the glow of a great cauldron of molten-iron swung by a heavy crane to be tipped while the ropy metal was poured into the moulding flask... which stood on end in a deep pit where a gun was to be cast. I worked on the cartoon through the night and by dawn had arranged the main features and effects.” Weir worked on the large canvas for two years, and though he has described the work for us in the words above, we feel perhaps even he did not realize its importance, for he did not follow up his great innovation of studying America's industrial pictorial possibilities. "He went to Munich to study and there he came in contact with that art center’s dedication to the technique of the seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Frans Hals. The dashing techniques of the Munich artists were directly opposite the meticulous, almost photographic, Hudson River approach. The Munich School made no impression on Weir, but later it was to influence Robert Henri, and from Henri stemmed that long line of American painters who accepted industrialization as part of the American landscape. Had Weir accepted this freedom and added it to his very avant-garde interest, he might have become one of the greatest of our painters. The Gun Foundry is an amazing picture for its time and it spells out the trance of machinery and industry long before other artists could bring themselves to see that way." ------from The Vincent Price Treasury of American
Art published by Country Beautiful Corporation, Waukesha, WI. 1972 (p. 127) ABOUT THIS PICTURE ... This Copy of John Ferguson Weir’s The Gun Foundry, is said to be the most important industrial picture of nineteenth-century America. He painted this picture at the height of the Civil War. I think the "1886” refers to the actual date of release - not date of creation. This was a huge cannon factory “across the river from West Point” where they cast Parrott guns and other ordnance. I don’t know exactly where this foundry was, but this could be ascertained. (Later: a chance reference to this picture in another source mentions the “West Point Foundry”, where "...over 3OOO cannon were cast for the Union army...”). From the cited references, it is unclear to me which side of the river the foundry was actually on! Weir worked two years on his canvas - a masterpiece. He stumbled in his career however, and failed to follow on with an interest in the industrial scene. I believe this Weir was the “famous artist” whose land and estate in Redding, CT was declared a National Historic Site not long ago (and where I once hiked upon the grounds when I lived in the vicinity..). The scene is a dusty, smoky foundry. I have never seen a really clear reproduction of this difficult picture! I had carried the dramatic memory of it as imperfectly and dimly seen in poorly reproduced art books for years… and I believe I finally undertook to copy it from the repro in Vincent Price's book (from Public Library). So I have no copy at hand now of the original I worked from.... At left edge in gloom you can see what are probably the flasks or (better) moulds for the cannon tubes or barrels standing upright along the wall. These moulds have a grid-like or waffled appearance from their integral reinforcing ribs. I have researched and written on cannon-casting techniques (Artilleryman, Foundry mags) in the Eighteenth Century where moulds similar to but not identical to these were made by building up with clay around mandrels or patterns made from organic materials. These were onetime use, expendable molds, one-piece - no split halves. One such mould stands upright in the deep casting pit visible in the left foreground. In 18thCent. foundries, the top of the mould would not protrude above the rim of the casting pit but that is not the case here. Here molten iron from a large ladle is being poured into the mould sprue of the mould. A gang of men, working with handspikes or bars provides the muscle power to tip the massive ladle. One of their number rests on an earlier as-cast tube. Another worker in the foreground shields his face from the intense heat by holding his apron before him - and pokes (apparently) at the sand density in the pit with a long rod. This again is reminiscent of 18th Cent. procedure, save that those worthies would have rammed the sand firm down around the mould in the pit flush to the top of the pit before any casting was begun. (Their technique was to lead the molten metal to the sprue via temporary gutters scratched into the foundry floor leading from the furnace to the castingpit). Thus, it seems a little odd to see the access ladder still leading down into the pit at left rear of the pit (indicating the pit is not filled completely up with sand to restrain the pressure of the heavy metal as it enters the moulds ... ). Perhaps by the 19th Century stronger mould fabrications and other advances had permitted these changes. Note also the handlebar-mustachioed foundryman to right of the ladle who is probably restraining slag on top of the metal from becoming entrained in the “cast”. Just beyond him, and right next to the ladle can be seen another worker very faintly behind the glare of the intense heat. At center is a huge brick cupola, or furnace or stack of some kind, and in front of it is a massive timber jib boom or crane-and-winch, the latter being turned by a crew at its base. Yet another foundryman in foreground, standing on another cast barrel, holds the downfalls (or just "falls") to a chain-hoist on the crane. Above the ladle is a temporary scrap sheetmetal shield - to protect the block-and-falls mechanism just above it from the intense heat. The huge upright vertical timber in the crane pivots, probably on a huge pin in its base...To the rear, through the glare surrounding the ladle, and centered behind the brick stack, can be seen a vast iron-plated structure - and tools and rods propped against it. It may be some kind of (closed?) hearth or furnace as suggested by the white-hot spot (left side)which may be the glow from a cinder-notch (??). So similarly at right rear. A friend, knowledgeable in these matters, has suggested this structure might be the housing for an early “blowing engine “ to maintain draft... In the right foreground is another casting pit. On the 18th Century time level, these typically are 10 to 15 ft. deep and usually walled with heavy planks. They are temporary structures dug right into the foundry floor. This latter pit - not currently in use is being readied for a future “cast”. A crouching figure is tending what may be a leader or gutter from a furnace at rear (?) leading to the casting pit. (Perhaps a flush-to-top-of-pit cast will be attempted here). In the pit is what may be a compressed-air ram ( I don’t know the date of introduction for the use of pneumatic tools) for compacting the sand around the mould. (On the first study of this painting which I did, I missed several details pertaining to the crouched figure and the little ditch). At a later date, and studying the book illustration with a hand lens, I saw more than I had previously: actually in Price’s reproduction, the gutter (page gutter, not the foundry gutter!) of the two-page spread, strikes right through here - making it difficult to see what is going on. And the picture is dark and gloomy overall in tone, etc. Hard to see detail! But the additional details have been recaptured in my larger, second version of this classic...In the lower right foreground is a bull-ladle lying idle: the forked handle permits it to be tipped when pouring. (It is for two-man use). At the right edge a group of visitors watches the activity from a distance. (No OSHA inspectors have ever been in here!) We see an elderly man (seated), two young women, and an apparent escort in a military (Yankee!) blue uniform - perhaps a Union ordnance officer overseeing the casting of the vital tubes... In my first study, there is one other nondescript
figure in this group -which I omitted plus a small barking dog. I have included all
these latter omissions in the second study. I’m sure Weir painted what he saw -
and foundry practices and rules were a lot different in those times. (I can say this from
personal experience in the early‘50’s when my job often took me into grey iron
foundries in Southern New England. Their informal style depicted by Weir still
reigned in small foundries even at the late date when I knew them ... ) A
stone-walled facing, perhaps to a large furnace behind the visitors group, shows a casting
arch (perhaps a doorway?) and various temporary planking and scaffolding clinging to its
sides - whose exact use escapes me. Presumably all this would have figured in
operation of the furnace, if such it is, when it was in use. | Home |
