The McArdle Scrapbooks and Paintings

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Introduction

Henry Arthur McArdle was born in 1836, the year in which Texas declared its independence and experienced its legendary defeat at the Alamo and victory at San Jacinto. A native of Belfast, Ireland, McArdle began the study of art as a child. When McArdle was 14, his parents died, and he emigrated to America with an aunt. He studied art under David A. Woodward at the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts, and in 1860 won the Peabody Prize.

During the Civil War, McArdle joined the Confederacy as a draftsman. Later in the war, he joined the staff of General Robert E. Lee as a mapmaker. After the war, he and his wife Jennie moved to Independence, Texas, where he taught art at Baylor Female College (now The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor).

While working with Hood's Texas Brigade veterans to research his painting Lee in the Wilderness, McArdle became interested in Texas history. After Baylor Female College moved from Independence, McArdle and his family moved to San Antonio, where he set up a studio and began a series of portraits and action canvases associated with Texas subjects.

Dawn at the Alamo and The Battle of San Jacinto remain among the best known of his surviving works. Exhaustively researched, the two paintings attempt to reproduce as accurately as possible the persons, events, accoutrements, and settings of the events they portray. To do this, McArdle amassed a body of documents, photographs, maps, and personal recollections that would later be sold to the state along with the two canvases that now hang in the Texas Senate Chamber and are a part of the Capitol Artwork collection held by the State Preservation Board.

Although he had created the paintings with an eye to their being purchased by the state, McArdle had difficulty obtaining payment, even when he allowed the paintings to be displayed in the capitol building. The two battle paintings were not purchased until nineteen years after his death on February 16, 1908. In 1927 the 40th Legislature approved $25,000 to purchase both paintings and the accumulated research materials.

More About Henry McArdle the Artist

Henry Arthur McArdle was born in Belfast, Ireland on June 9, 1836, the same year as the Texas Revolution. He began his study of art as a child. At age 14, after the deaths of his parents, he emigrated to the United States with an aunt and settled in Baltimore. He studied at the Maryland Institute for the Promotional of Mechanic Arts, and was awarded the prestigious Peabody Prize in 1860.

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and transcript.
McArdle had great difficulty getting paid for his work. This letter shows his attempt to get payment in 1888 for his "Log Cabin" painting of Stephen F. Austin.
 

During the Civil War, McArdle served as a draftsman in the Confederacy, creating maps first for the Confederate Navy and later on the staff of General Robert E. Lee. After the war, he married Jennie Smith and moved to Independence, Texas. He taught art at Baylor Female College and began work as a portrait painter. While painting Texas Civil War veterans, he became interested in their stories and began work on Lee at the Wilderness, his first battle painting. He also conceived a fervent interest in Texas history that would propel the rest of his career. Jennie died of consumption (tuberculosis) in 1870. Two years later, McArdle married Isophene Lacy (Isie) Dunnington; together they had a daughter and four sons.

In later years, McArdle moved to San Antonio and set up a studio there where he pursued his art full-time. He lacked the business and political savvy that could have won him large commissions and secured payment from the state for his paintings, and thus suffered from financial hardships. He died on February 16, 1908. To read more about McArdle, go to this Handbook of Texas article on McArdle link. To read C.W. Raines' biographical sketch of McArdle, visit this page of the Dawn at the Alamo scrapbook.

 

The Scrapbooks  |  The Paintings |  The Artist  |  About the Digitization  |  Index of Subjects

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