Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Fletcher C. Ransom
Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.
Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Fletcher C. Ransom
Fletcher Charles Ransom was born October 23, 1870 at Alamo, Michigan, and grew up on his family’s farm near Kalamazoo. He earned a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago and later the Academy of Fine Art in New York City, settling in Gotham and becoming a successful commercial illustrator by the turn of the century.
He did sketches and paintings for Colliers, Woman’s Home Companion, Youth’s Companion, and McClures, as well as a number of calendar companies.
The Sentinel
Cream of Wheat advert
Perhaps his best known work is a series of 14 images of President Lincoln at various times in his life story on commission for the Chicago & Midland & Illinois Railroad Company, who used the imagery for decades and some of which is on display in a number of galleries today including the art collection of Congress.
Lincoln the Postmaster
Lincoln at Gettysburg
In 1898, the 27-year-old Ransom packed his satchel and headed down to Tampa to entrain with the volunteers invading Cuba as part of Colliers’ coverage during the Spanish-American war. This led to a number of pieces on that conflict.
Teddy Roosevelt: The All American
Forgotten Heroes; Captain Taylor, Troop C, 9th Calvary, Leading a Charge up the San Juan Hill in the Battle of Cuba. Importantly, this is one of the few images of the Buffalo Soldiers in action at San Juan Hill
Widely disseminated sketch of Forgotten Heroes via the Mitchell Collection of African American History.
Further martial work in the 1900s included wartime pieces and others.
1915: American and Canadians Cavalry at the Border- 100 Years of Peace
Homecoming, 1918
Later in life, Ransom left the rat race of the city and came back to Plainwell, Michigan, where he died May 2 1943.
There are a number of online galleries as well as a few short bios of Ransom’s life while his painting of the 9th Cav in action in 1898 has taken on a life of its own.
Thank you for your work, sir.