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Assembling of the Multitude at the Eastern Portico, at the Commencement of the Inauguration Ceremonies

Assembling of the Multitude at the Eastern Portico, at the Commencement of the Inauguration Ceremonies/tiles/collection/1/12872.xml
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Date

1853-03-12

Artist

Christian Schussele

Publisher

Illustrated News

Dimensions

15 3/8 × 21 3/8 in. (39.1 × 54.3 cm)

Accession Number

2015.001.002

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

The crowd at Franklin Pierce’s 1853 inauguration on the Capitol’s East Front appears in surging, baroque form in this print from the short-lived Illustrated News. The artist, Christian Schussele—a well-respected teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts—was known for his highly expressive history and genre paintings. Frank Leslie, who soon went on to found his own news journal, engraved the print block. The gesture and movement of the crowd in this scene, a subject often rendered prosaically in the illustrated weeklies, exemplifies the artist’s flair for figural drama.

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Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov