Associated Press
Alamo visitors check out the restored 1834 portrait of Davy Crockett.Posted on 11/19/2003 8:21:33 PM PST by Dog Gone
Associated Press Alamo visitors check out the restored 1834 portrait of Davy Crockett. |
SAN ANTONIO - Davy Crockett has returned to the Alamo, but visitors to the shrine of Texas independence say the frontiersman's oil-and-canvas version appeared kinder and gentler than his rough frontier image.
The restored 1834 painting of Crockett has not hung in the Alamo since 1977. Observers during an informal morning ceremony Tuesday said they were surprised to see Crockett's delicate looks.
Crockett was likely 47 when he sat for the portrait by artist John Gadsby Chapman two years before the Tennessee statesman's death at the famous battle against the Mexican Army led by Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, president of Mexico.
The painting was placed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas near one of Crockett's vests. The bright spangled vest recently was restored and went on display last year.
The two items should give visitors a good glimpse of Crockett's life, said Kathleen Carter, chairwoman of the Alamo committee for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
"He was a larger-than-life person," she told the San Antonio Express-News in today's editions. "I'm quite pleased to have this back on display for the state of Texas."
Crockett, who had posed for fewer than 10 portraits, had complained that the previous works made him "look like a Methodist minister." So the artist had him wear buckskins instead of his more common suit.
"He was really trying to live up to his developing image of the `Lion of the West,'" said Stephen Hardin, a professor of Texas and American history at Victoria College. "He didn't normally dress that way."
Crockett's careers ranged from hunting to serving in Congress, and his image was as varied, Hardin said.
"What people need to remember is he had been a backwoods man, but when he was elected to Congress he became a gentleman," said Hardin. "He's been described as the first American celebrity, someone who was famous not for what he'd done, but for who he was."
To visitors, Crockett looked more like a well-groomed, studious gentleman than a tamer of the wild frontier.
"He looks a lot more refined and scholarly," said Donna Flynn, who lives in the Washington area. "The typical image of him is with a coonskin cap, out in the nature. I expected him to look more rugged."
He may have looked like an Alan Alda type, but the dude was all John Wayne.
BTT...
To see the show, go to this link and look for "Not Your Father's Alamo". BTW, despite what some may anticipate, these guys were not leftists.
The second is an actual painting, and reconciles with the appearance of Crockett in the restored painting so well, I am assured that those two are actual likenesses.
Lacking any photos, this is as close as we'll ever get to knowing what Davy Crockett really looked like.
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