Harper's Ferry, October 16, 1859
Harper's Ferry, October 16, 1859
Prompt
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, the night of October 16, 1859. A small band of about twenty men in dark overcoats and slouch hats walking single file across the covered Baltimore and Ohio railroad bridge over the Potomac in a cold drizzle, rifles slung, moving away from the viewer toward the town. The LAST man at the rear of the line, closest to the viewer, holds a single shuttered lantern low. Its thin warm glow spills forward along the wet planks, so the men ahead show up as dark silhouettes against the light, fading into blackness toward the front of the line. All faces are hidden and turned away, and no figure is shown as a portrait. Beyond the bridge, the sleeping town climbs the steep hillside where the Shenandoah meets the Potomac, with a few dim lit windows, the brick armory buildings, and the small brick engine house with its cupola near the tracks. Black wooded ridges rise on both sides, low mist sits on the dark river, and the sky is heavy with no moon. The mood is quiet and ominous, the calm before something irreversible. Late 1500s oil on canvas, Venetian Renaissance style, loose visible brush strokes, impasto highlights on the lantern glow, yellowed amber varnish, faded muted colors, dense craquelure, flaked paint, dark grimy corners, visible canvas weave, low contrast, nothing crisp or glossy.
