In Tragic Prelude, how is the Curry's description discussed?
Curry later described the work as follows:Centered on the north wall (31′ x 11′6″ [9.4m x 3.5m]) is the gigantic figure of John Brown. In his outstretched left hand the word of God and in the right a “Beecher's Bible." Beside him facing each other are the contending free soil and pro-slavery forces. At their feet, two figures symbolic of the million and a half dead of the North and South. In this group is expressed the fratricidal fury that first flamed on the plains of Kansas, the Tragic Prelude to the last bloody feud of the English-speaking people. Back of this group are the pioneers and their wagons on the endless trek to the West, and back of all the tornado and the raging prairie fire, fitting symbols of the destruction of the coming Civil War.
In a newspaper interview of 1939, he explained that "I wanted to paint him as a fanatic, for John Brown was a fanatic. He had the wild zeal of the extremist, the fanatic for his cause—and we had the Civil War, with its untold misery." Later, he wrote in a letter: "I think he is the prototype of a great many Kansans. Someone described a Kansan as one who went about wreaking good on humanity. This might be the kernel of my conception."
tornado Civil War prairie fire Beecher's Bible Kansas John Brown