Texas Revolution - Three Print Set
Here's something lots of people have asked for. Smaller versions of our Texas Revolution prints.
Each has the same level of detail as our large three-foot versions, but measures 24 by 16 inches instead. Perfect if you have limited wall space.
Each is limited to 254 copies, and hand numbered, just like the bigger versions.
Read on for the story behind each one. . .
Print 1: Dawn at the Alamo
The most famous depiction of the fall of the Alamo ever painted. You have almost certainly seen it, but you might not know the story behind it.
The title is Dawn at the Alamo and it hangs in the senate chamber at the capitol. It was painted in 1905 by Henry Arthur McArdle to replace his earlier painting of the same title that was destroyed when the earlier capitol building burned in 1881.
McArdle shows you the apex of the carnage and confusion of battle. He wanted Dawn at the Alamo to venerate the bravery of the Defenders and inspire Texas patriotism.
McArdle was aided in his efforts by Reuben Marmaduke Potter, the first Alamo historian. Potter, a long-time army quartermaster, made it his job to learn every knowable detail of the battle and was dedicated to seeing it properly commemorated.
He advised the artist on the uniforms and weapons of both sides, as well as how the Alamo compound looked at the time of the battle. He thought it was essential to depict the hellscape the Alamo Defenders found themselves in. As he told McArdle, "It should be like looking into a volcano."
What McArdle painted is not a single moment in time, as it shows things that happened many minutes apart: by all accounts, Travis fell at the opening of the battle and Crockett, no matter which version of his death you believe, at the end.
Bowie is shown rising from his cot, knife ready to gut the foe. Major Evans, torch in hand, attempts to blow up the powder magazine. Susanna Dickinson holding the Babe of the Alamo, can't bare to look at what's happening. Joe, Travis' slave, watches it all in horror.
And it would be a horror still if we did not know what came after, that the Alamo Defenders would be avenged at San Jacinto and Texas would be a republic. In a way, Henry McArdle painted the birth of the the Texan identity.
Print 2: The Battle of San Jacinto
Henry McArdle's painting of the Alamo's fall is one of the most famous artistic depictions of Texas history, but his other great Texas Revolution painting, The Battle of San Jacinto is not nearly as well known.
That's a shame. The full title is The Battle of San Jacinto - Retributive Justice and the Triumph of Texas' Independence. and, just like his Dawn at the Alamo painting, it hangs in the senate chamber at the capitol.
The extended title is apt, as that's exactly what it shows: retribution for invasion, for the Alamo, and for Goliad.
McArdle painted the battle as many vignettes viewed from the southeast. There's Sam Houston, horse shot from under him, with sword raised urging the men forward. Henry Karnes attempting to seize the Mexican flag as Deaf Smith rides ahead.
The more you study it, the more you discover: Lamar, Rusk, Menchaca, Sylvester, Burleson, Sherman, and more. And of course, there's Santa Anna, the "Napoleon of the West" running for his life.
Print 3: The Surrender of Santa Anna
It's April 22, 1836. Yesterday, in just eighteen minutes, the Texas Army defeated Santa Anna's forces on the Field of San Jacinto. But the Mexican general was not among the dead or the captured. Where could he be?
This morning, General Houston sent scouting parties out to round up any soldados who managed to evade capture the previous day.
The scene includes Deaf Smith (Houston's trusted scout), Surgeon general Alexander Ewing tending to the general's shattered ankle, Thomas Rusk, Ned Burleson, future President Mirabeau B. Lamar, Ben McCullough, and even the Twin Sisters cannons at far right.
Huddle completed The Surrender of Santa Anna in 1886. The State of Texas purchased it in 1891 to hang in the new granite capitol. It hangs in the South Foyer.
This is a pivotal moment in Texas history. Imagine what might have happened if Santa Anna had made it back to the remainder of his army at Fort Bend.
Physical Details
- Each measures 24 by 16 inches
- Each is a Limited Edition of 254 copies
- Each is hand-numbered
- Museum Quality Reproduction
These are high quality fine-art prints.
The paper is acid free, cold press cotton with an elegant ever so lightly textured finish. This surface allows the inks to 'bite', reproducing the shading and tonality of the original map vividly, beautifully, and exactly.
