Alonzo Chappel
Alonzo Chappel was a
famous artist of the past century and was born in New York City in
1829. At 12 years of age he was painting portraits of $10 each, but
portrait painting was not his ambition. Young as he was, he had
already acquired a taste for reading history, and in this field he
found plenty of material for his inexperienced brush to try its
skill upon.
When he was 21 he was
married to Almira Stewart by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in
Brooklyn, where his family now lived. He now redoubled his efforts
and painted early and late.
Goupil's old gallery
on Broadway was in those days the popular place for the exhibition
of paintings and it was there that several of Mr. Chappel's
paintings were observed by a Rev. Magoon of New York, who introduced
him to the publishing house of Martin, Johnson and Fry, who made a
specialty of finely illustrated works. He was at once engaged to
paint the plates for a book in the course of preparation, and his
work was so satisfactory that he remained in the employ of that
concern during the rest of his active life.
Among the works
illustrated by him were "Spencer's History of the United States".
"Schroeder's Life and Times of Washington”, “ Duyckink's National
Portrait Gallery", "Duyckink's History of the Civil War”, and
several others.
Besides painting the
illustrations for these large books he found time to paint “The Last
Hours of Lincoln," and another picture was one with 75 figures
representing a scene connected with the first celebration of
Independence day in New York. Another famous painting of his was the
"Battle of Long Island", which contained over -200 figures. The
conflict is represented as raging about the old mill at Gowanus, a
locality consecrated for all time by the blood of many patriots.
Mr. Chappel seemed to
understand a subject completely and to be possessed of the ability
to portray the subjects of his imagination with striking effect. No
written labels were necessary to explain the character of individual
figures.
In August 1869, after
the death of his wife, Mr. Chappel moved to Middle Island and
purchased a farm east of Artist Lake, where he built a
beautiful homestead. Here he lived and continued his work of
painting together with his second wife, who was a sister of E.D.
Carpenter of New York and their four children.
He died December 4,
1887 and was buried in the Middle Island cemetery opposite the
Presbyterian Church.
Two of the large
books "National Portrait Gallery," illustrated by his paintings are
in the possession of the writer.