Reddit mentions of The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

Samuel Morse, now famous for helping to develop the telegraph, began his career as an aspiring young American artist who moved to Paris to develop his craft.

He was born to a pastor in Massachusetts and set off on the arduous Atlantic crossing at the age of 26. When he arrived, he dove deep into his studies of the masters at the Louvre. He could be found there copying paintings from opening to closing every day of the week.

In the early 1830s he decided to demonstrate his skills as a copyist by creating an enormous collage of all of his favorite pieces in the Louvre. The central focus of the piece is a hallway in the Louvre which, at the time, was one of the longest single rooms in the world at over a quarter mile in length. The pieces which he was especially fond of were clustered around the door frame.

Painting on such a large canvas (180x274cm) was a huge undertaking. The canvas as well as his scaffold had to be moved around the Louvre from painting to painting as he slowly added each one. His close friend and fellow American James Cooper spent hours each day keeping him company and discussing his project (James Cooper was at the time the most accomplished American author abroad after The Last of the Mohicans became a huge hit in Paris). To add to the trying circumstances, cholera made its way to the city and began wreaking havoc on its residents. Tens of thousands were dying on the streets but Morse continued his task.

Once nearly complete, Morse brought the painting to New York and finished all of the frames of the paintings and added people in the foreground. Like the selected paintings, Morse chose only his favorite subjects including, prominently himself teaching a young woman to paint.

The painting sold for ~$1200 which, much to his dissapointment, was substantially less than he expected it to earn him. The next year, he began his work on the telegraph. The painting would later be purchased by the Louvre for over $3M in 1982 which was at the time the largest price paid for an American painting.

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*Note: I learned about this piece from The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough. It's a great book that follows some of the now-famous Americans that traveled to Paris during the mid 19th century.

Other side notes: Morse studied under Benjamin West in Paris. Morse founded and served as the first president of the US National Academy.

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Here is a list of paintings included from left to right [Numbered map]:

1. Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese (1528 – 1588,
   Italian), Wedding Feast at Cana
   
   
2. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 – 1682, Spanish),
   Immaculate Conception
   
   
3. Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet (1644 – 1717, French),
   Descent from the Cross
   
   
4. Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto (1518 – 1594,
   Italian), Self-Portrait
   
   
5. Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665, French), Deluge
   (Winter)
   
   
6. Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio
   (1571 – 1610, Italian), Fortune Teller
   
   
7. Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian (c. 1490 – 1576,
   Italian), Christ Crowned with Thorns
   
   
8. Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641, Flemish), Venus
   Asking Vulcan for the Arms for Aeneas
   
   
9. Claude Gellée, known as Claude Lorrain
   (1604/1605 – 1682, French), Disembarkation of Cleopatra
   at Tarsus
   
   
10. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 – 1682, Spanish),
    Holy Family
    
    
11. David Teniers II (1610 – 1690, Flemish), Knife
    Grinder
    
    
12. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 – 1669, Dutch), Tobias
    and the Angel
    
    
13. Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665, French), Diogenes
    Casting Away His Cup
    
    
14. Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian (c. 1490 – 1576,
    Italian), Supper at Emmaus
    
    
15. Cornelis Huysmans (1648 – 1727, Flemish),
    Landscape with Shepherds and Herd
    
    
16. Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641, Flemish), Portrait of
    a Lady and Her Daughter
    
    
17. Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian (c. 1490 – 1576,
    Italian), Portrait of Francis I, King of France
    
    
18. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 – 1682, Spanish),
    Beggar Boy
    
    
19. Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese (1528 – 1588,
    Italian), Christ Carrying the Cross
    
    
20. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519, Italian), Mona Lisa
    
    
21. Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio
    (1489/1494 – 1534, Italian), Mystic Marriage of
    St. Catherine of Alexandria
    
    
22. Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640, Flemish), Lot and
    His Family Fleeing Sodom
    
    
23. Claude Gellée, known as Claude Lorrain
    (1604/1605 – 1682, French), Sunset at the Harbor
    
    
24. Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian (c. 1490 – 1576,
    Italian), Entombment
    
    
25. Eustache Le Sueur and his Studio (1617 – 1655,
    French), Christ Carrying the Cross
    
    
26. Salvator Rosa (1615 – 1673, Italian), Landscape with
    Soldiers and Hunters
    
    
27. Raphael Santi, known as Raphael (1483 – 1520,
    Italian), Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John the
    Baptist, called La Belle Jardinière
    
    
28. Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641, Flemish), Portrait of
    a Man in Black (the artist Paul de Vos?)
    
    
29. Guido Reni (1575 – 1642, Italian), The Union of
    Design and Color
    
    
30. Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640, Flemish), Portrait
    of Suzanne Fourment
    
    
31. Simone Cantarini (1612 – 1648, Italian), Rest on the
    Flight into Egypt
    
    
32. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 – 1669, Dutch), Head of
    an Old Man
    
    
33. Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641, Flemish), Jesus with
    the Woman Taken in Adultery
    
    
34. Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714 – 1789, French), Marine
    View by Moonlight
    
    
35. Guido Reni (1575 – 1642, Italian), Dejanira and the
    Centaur Nessus
    
    
36. Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640, Flemish), Thomysris,
    Queen of the Massagetae
    
    
37. Pierre Mignard I (1612 – 1695, French), Madonna
    and Child
    
    
38. Antoine Watteau (1684 – 1721, French), Pilgrimage
    to the Isle of Cythera
    
    
39. Unidentified Greco-Roman urn
    
    
40. Attributed to Leochares (2nd century BC?), Artemis
    (Diana) Hunting, called Diana of Ephesus and Diana of
    Versailles, Roman marble copy of a Greek original
    
    
41. A case of unidentified miniatures, possibly
    paintings and carved gems
    
    
42. Morse’s signature appears on the back