First News of the Battle of Lexington

Artist William Tylee Ranney American, 1813–1857

Date1847

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions44 1/16 x 63 5/16 in. (111.9 x 160.8 cm)
Frame: 51 3/4 x 71 in. (131.4 x 180.3 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.25

On View

On view

Provenance**Created United States, 1847; collection of the artist; sold to American Art-Union, New York, 1847; distributed by lottery to Mrs. John Stevens Cogdell (née Maria Gilchrist), Charleston, SC, 1847; possibly bequeathed to nephew, Robert Cogdell Gilchrist, 1858 [1]. [John P. Nicholson Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] In her Will, signed May 8,1856 and probated December 15,1858, Maria Gilchrist Cogdell, widow of John S. Cogdell, bequeathed to her nephew Robert Cogdell Gilchrist, "the sum of one thousand dollars, also all my books pictures and engravings." (transcript of Will at South Carolina State Archives, Columbia)
Published References"The Art-Union Pictures," The Literary World 2 (October 23, 1847), 277–278, mentioned 277.

Bulletin of the American Art-Union (November 1, 1847), 11.

"The Art-Union Pictures (Concluding Notice)," The Literary World 2 (November 13, 1847), 356–357, discussed 356.

American Art-Union Bulletin (December 15, 1847), 10.

"Splendid Painting," Southern Patriot (Charleston, SC, 1847), n.p.

(American Art-Union Newspaper Cuttings, New-York Historical Society).

American Art-Union, Transactions of the American Art-Union, For the Year 1847 (New York: G. F. Nesbitt, 1848), 39, listed no. 149.

"The American Art Union," The Charleston Courier (January 31, 1848), 2.

New York Post (June 30, 1848).

Martha Russell, “A Sabbath of 1776” in Leaves from the Tree Igdrasyl (Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1854), noted 201.

(Nicholson Gallery advertisement) Art Quarterly 10 (Spring, 1947), illus. (b-w) 154.

(Nicholson Gallery advertisement) Art Digest 21 (September 15, 1947), illus. (b-w) 17.

Mary Bartlett Cowdrey, American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art-Union, 2 vols. (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1953), Vol. 2, Exhibition Record, 1816–1852, listed 294.

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 29.

Francis S. Grubar, William Ranney, Painter of the Early West (exhibition catalogue) (Washington: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1962), no. 26, illus. (b-w), discussed 14.

"Biennial Report: Loans from the Museum Collection," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 4, nos. 2 and 3 (Winter-Spring,1964): noted 10.

Francis Russell, Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill (New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1963), illus. (color) 6.

American Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 46, illus. (b-w).

Jay Glanzrock, Adventures in American History (Morristown, N. J.: Silver Burdett Co., 1967), illus. (b-w) 66.

Charles W. Stanford, Jr., Selections from British and American Painting and Sculpture (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1967), no. 24, illus. (color).

John R. Alden, A History of the American Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), illus. (color), plate 10.

North Carolina Report (Fall 1974), illus. (detail, color) cover.

200 Years of the Visual Arts in North Carolina (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1976), cat. no. 47, illus. (b-w) and (color) opposite title page.

American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (brochure) (Charlotte: Mint Museum of Art, 1975), no. 30.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 243.

Patricia Hills, “Picturing Progress in the Era of Westward Expansion,” in The West as America: Reintrepreting Images of the Frontier, 1820–1920 (Washington and London: Published for the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), 142, note 46.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 229.

Mark Thistlethwaite, "The Past into the Present: William Ranney's First News of the Battle of Lexington," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (1993), 2–12, illus. (color) fig. 1.

Douglas Brinkley, American Heritage History of the United States (New York: Viking, 1998), mentioned and illus. (color) 67.

John W. Coffey, entry for First News of the Battle of Lexington, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 197, illus. (color).

M. Therese Southgate, M.D., "The Cover," JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 288, no. 1 (July 3, 2002), discussed 15, illus. (color) 7, 15, and cover.

"Highlights Include Kids' Favorites," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (September/October 2003), mentioned 7.

Linda Bantel and Peter H. Hassrick, Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney (exhibition catalogue) (Cody, WY: Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 2006), mentioned xx, cat. no. 31, illus. (color) 38

James C. Boyles, “’Under a Spreading Chestnut Tree’: The Blacksmith and His Forge in Nineteenth-Century American Art,” in Industrial Archaeology 34, nos. 1 and 2 (2008), discussed 13, illus. 14, fig. 3.

John W. Coffey, entry for First News of the Battle of Lexington, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 410, illus. (color) 411.

Jacqueline Jones, et al, Created Equal: A History of the United States, Combined Volume/Brief Third Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice-Hall, 2011), illus. (color) 165.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, American-Art Union, 1847, no. 149 (as First News of the Battle of Lexington).

Charleston, SC, Hart Sr. Bookstore, January-February 1848 (see Charleston Courier notice).

New York, NY, John P. Nicholson Gallery, September 1947.

Boston, Vose Galleries, "American Landscapes and Figure Paintings," July 15-September 15, 1948, no. 24.

Washington, DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, "William Ranney, Painter of the Early West," October 4-November 11, 1962; Detroit, MI, The Detroit Institute of Arts, November 27, 1962-January 1, 1963; Dallas, TX, The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, January 28-March 11, 1963, no. 26.

Winston-Salem, NC, Salem College, Fine Arts Center, "A Selection from Major North Carolina Museums," September 22-29, 1974.

Charlotte, NC, Mint Museum of Art, "American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," September 7-October 19, 1975, no. 30.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "200 Years of the Visual Arts in North Carolina," September 12-October 24, 1976, cat. no. 47, illus. (b-w) and (color) opp. title page.

Fayetteville, NC, Fayetteville Museum of Art, "Inaugural Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," May 1-30, 1978.

Chadd's Ford, PA, "Revere's Ride and Longfellow's Legend," Brandywine River Museum, September 11-November 21, 2004; Lexington, MA, National Heritage Museum, January 29-June 26, 2005.

Cody, WY, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, "Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney," May 13-August 14, 2006; Louisville, KY, Speed Art Museum, September 29, 2006-January 1, 2007; Fort Worth, TX, February 10-May 13, 2007; Philadelphia, PA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, June 23-August 26, 2007, mentioned xx, cat. no. 31, illus. (color) 38.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, Highlights of the American Collection, February 15-August 2, 2009.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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