Thomas Hovenden, who has actively participated in the Underground Railroad and anti-slavery assemblages together with his wife, illustrates John Brown in “The Last Moments of John Brown.”
This painting portrays John Brown stopping to kiss a black toddler while descending the stairs — from the courthouse perhaps — to his execution. It is December 2, 1859, right before his execution for his treason that his brutal invasion caused on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Two crowds enclose him: one is of idolizing deprived blacks and the other of uniformed deputies of the law, together with well-dressed white men who appear to be related to Brown’s trial. Significantly white-haired Brown, depicted full-bodied and dressed in fine clean clothes, has his eyes closed. A rope is tied on one of his arms to restrain him. Black children, infrequently spotted on the painting, along with the black crowd encircling Brown, are seeking to catch a glimpse of Brown with pure wonder and worship. Whereas the officers, armed with bayonets, are attempting to secure the boundaries set by the law between the captivated crowd and John Brown.
The way Hovenden paints the scene, and the way John Brown himself is portrayed, stimulate emotions of sympathy. His soft silver hair and his exposed head make him look vulnerable. Brown is additionally the only white man in the composition without a top hat. The adoring way the underprivileged black people are gazing at him initiates the viewers to feel that he must be the hero to them; in other words, it evokes sentiments of admiration in the observer. Also, his eyes are closed — he acknowledges his life is ending, and because he is romanticized, humbly dressed for a white man, and portrayed in a positive light, this generates pity in the viewers. In contradiction to the black crowd, white men, who, I believe, are the marshals, both literally and figuratively look down on Brown. The disdain and subtle mockery Brown receives in the painting arouses discomfort and displeasure in the audience, who are encouraged to appreciate the piece through the abolitionist’s point of view. This point is made stronger by the figure in the corner looking at the whites, deeply agitated.
Thomas Hovenden intends to represent Brown as mentioned above: vulnerable, holy, heroic and unwavering. Hovenden illustrates a figure on the left-hand side of the painting, whose gaze saturated with reverence is only fixed towards Brown that he doesn’t even address the officer, agitated, in front. The specific aspects of the piece register that the painter aspired to convey that the rest of the people who promoted the cause of freedom, even the people outside of the painting, also embraced Brown and his intense effort and the sacrifice he presented and risked in Harpers Ferry. The artist, an abolitionist himself, willed to depict John Brown the way oppressed people and other abolitionists viewed him, a steadfast leader who dedicated to equity even in his last moments.
Thomas Hovenden conveys that even two decades later, when he decided to paint “The Last Moments of John Brown,” the utter respect the abolitionists have for John Brown hasn’t changed a bit.
