Christopher Pearse Cranch (March 8, 1813 – January 20, 1892) was an American writer and artist.

Biography

Cranch was born in the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. His conservative father,

William Cranch William Cranch (July 17, 1769 – September 1, 1855) was a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge and chief judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. A staunch Federalist Party, Federalist and nephe ...

, was Chief Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, while his brother

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

was a painter. He graduated from Columbian College (now

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

) in 1835 before attending

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

and becoming a licensed preacher.Carpenter, Hazen C. "Emerson and Christopher Pearse Cranch" in ''The New England Quarterly''. Vol. 37, No. 1 (March 1964): 19. He traveled as a Unitarian minister, preaching in Providence, Andover, Richmond, Bangor, Portland, Boston, Washington, and St. Louis. Later, he pursued various occupations: a magazine editor,

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

, children's fantasy writer (the ''Huggermugger'' books), poet (''The Bird and the Bell with Other Poems'' in 1875), translator, and

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compos ...

. He lived much of his life in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. He married Elizabeth DeWindt in 1843. Though not one of its founding members, Cranch became associated with the

Transcendental Club The Transcendental Club was a group of New England authors, philosophers, socialists, politicians and intellectuals of the early-to-mid-19th century which gave rise to Transcendentalism. Overview Frederic Henry Hedge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George R ...

; he read

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

's ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' by December 1836 and beginning in June 1837 served as a substitute editor of the ''Western Messenger'' in the absence of

James Freeman Clarke James Freeman Clarke (April 4, 1810 – June 8, 1888) was an American minister, theologian and author. Biography Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on April 4, 1810, James Freeman Clarke was the son of Samuel Clarke and Rebecca Parker Hull, though h ...

. For that journal, Cranch reviewed Emerson's

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

address at Harvard in August 1837 known as "

The American Scholar "The American Scholar" was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was invited to speak in recognition of his gr ...

". He referred to the speech as "so full of beauties, full of original thought and illustration" and its author as "the man of genius, the bold deep thinker, and the concise original writer". Cranch's connection with the

Transcendentalists Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

ultimately diminished his demand as a minister. His poetry was published in '' The Harbinger'' and ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

'' among other publications. He sent "Enosis", which Hazen Carpenter noted as perhaps Cranch's most well-known poem, to Emerson for ''The Dial'' on March 2, 1840. Houghton MS Am 1506 (2) - Cranch

As an artist, Cranch painted landscapes similar to the work of

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history paintin ...

, the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...

, and the

Barbizon school The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name f ...

in France. In one foray into historical painting, Cranch depicted the burning of P. T.

Barnum's American Museum Barnum's American Museum was located at the corner of Broadway, Park Row, and Ann Street in what is now the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, from 1841 to 1865. The museum was owned by famous showman P. T. Barnum, who purchas ...

in New York City. Later in life, Cranch painted scenes from Venice and Italy. Cranch's caricatures of Emerson were later bound as ''Illustrations of the New Philosophy: Guide''. Perhaps his most well-remembered and recognized artwork is a hand-drawn caricature illustrating Emerson's concept of the "

transparent eyeball The transparent eyeball is a philosophical metaphor originated by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his essay ''Nature'', the metaphor stands for a view of life that is absorbent rather than reflective, and therefore ...

".Robinson, David. "The Career and Reputation of Christopher Pearse Cranch: An Essay in Biography and Bibliography" in ''Studies in the American Renaissance''. 1978: 455. In 1850, he was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

as an Associate Academician, and became a full Academician in 1864. He died at his home in Cambridge on January 20, 1892, and was buried at

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...

in Massachusetts.

Works

*''Poems'' (1844) *''The Last of the Huggermuggers, A Giant Story'' (1855) *''Kobboltozo, A Sequel to the Last of the Huggermuggers'' (1857) *''The Aeneid of Virgil'' (translation, 1872) *''Satan: A Libretto'' (1874) *''The Bird and the Bell with Other Poems'' (1875) *''Ariel and Caliban with Other Poems'' (1887)

References

External links

* * *
Listing at American Transcendentalism Web

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranch, Christopher Pearse 1813 births 1892 deaths Harvard Divinity School alumni 19th-century American painters American male painters Members of the Transcendental Club Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery American children's writers American fantasy writers Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni 19th-century American poets American male novelists 19th-century American novelists American male poets Poets from Washington, D.C. Painters from Washington, D.C. American landscape painters National Academy of Design members 19th-century male writers

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links