A visceral feel for mid-1800s whaling. The painting is a water-based binder on cotton muslin. On loan from the New Bedfor Whaling Juseum in Massachusetts.
Glimpsing exotic sites like the Azores 150 years ago
WINONA, Minn. — The longest painting in the United States, 1,275 feet in length, is being scrolled out in sections at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum through March 1. The work was completed in 1848 by a one-time New England whaler, Benjamin Russell, and fellow artist Caleb Purrington. The mural is based in a a 42-month whaling voyage aboard the ship Kutusoff. Russell and Purrington transformed these experiences into a a giant moving painting designed at the time for specially designed panorama theaters and public halls. Russell and Purrington called it “The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ’Round the World.” In an era before movies, such panoramas would be stretched along the perimeter of huge circular exhibition halls. People would walk around the perimeter for the full experience. At the Winona museum the displays are opened one section at a time in what are called “grand advancements.”. Repeat visits are encouraged.
Many hands. Installing yet another section of what passed as a traveloguein mid-1800s. Imagine the thrill of circumnavigating the globe before jumbo jets and cruise ships.