Frederick Catherwood

Frederick Catherwood

Frederick Catherwood (February 27, 1799September 27, 1854) was an English artist and architect, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization. He explored Mesoamerica in the mid 19th century with writer John Lloyd Stephens. Their books, "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán" and "Incidents of Travel in Yucatán", were best sellers and introduced to the Western world the civilization of the ancient Maya.

Mediterranean travels

Catherwood, having made many trips to the Mediterranean between 1824 and 1832 [ von Hagen (1968, p. xiii)] to draw the monuments made by the Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Phoenicians, stated that the monuments in the Americas bear no architectural similarity to those in the Old World. Thus, they must have been made by the native people of the area.

Catherwood made visits to Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine and with Joseph Bonomi the Younger made drawings and watercolors of the ancient remains there. During a six-week period in 1833, Catherwood was probably the first Westerner to make a detailed survey of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.cite web |url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture/alternating_currents/collections/domeoftherock/index.html |title= "Drawings of Islamic Buildings: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem." |format= html |work= Victoria and Albert Museum |quote= Until 1833 the Dome of the Rock had not been measured or drawn; according to Victor von Hagen, "no architect had ever sketched its architecture, no antiquarian had traced its interior design…" On 13 November in that year, however, Frederick Catherwood dressed up as an Egyptian officer and accompanied by an Egyptian servant "of great courage and assurance", and entered the buildings of the mosque with his drawing materials … "During six weeks, I continued to investigate every part of the mosque and its precincts." Thus, Catherwood made the first complete survey of the Dome of the Rock, and paved the way for many other artists in subsequent years, such as William Harvey, Ernest Richmond, and Carl Friedrich Heinrich Werner.]

Catherwood developed a sizeable reputation as a topographical artist, and perfected a drawing technique which used the "camera lucida".

Central America

In 1836 he met travel writer John Lloyd Stephens in London. They read the account of the ruins of Copán published by Juan Galindo, and decided to try to visit Central America themselves and produce a more detailed and better illustrated account. The expedition came together in 1839 and continued through the following year, visiting and documenting dozens of ruins, many for the first time. Stephens and Catherwood are credited for the "rediscovery" of the Maya civilization, and through their publications brought the Maya back into the minds of the Western World.

The expedition resulted in the book "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan", published in 1841, with text by Stephens and engravings based on the drawings of Catherwood.

Stephens and Catherwood returned to Yucatan to make further explorations, resulting in "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan" in 1843.

The following year Catherwood published "Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan", with 25 color lithographs from watercolors he made at various ruins. This folio was published in May 1844 simultaneously in London and New York in an edition of 300. Some 282 copies are known to survive, mostly held in private collections or libraries.

A large number of his original drawings and paintings were destroyed when the building where he was exhibiting them in New York City caught fire, but a number survive in museums and private collections, often showing more detail than the published engravings.

Last years

With the California Gold Rush Catherwood moved to San Francisco, California to open up a store to supply miners and prospectors, which he considered a more likely way to make money than chasing after the gold himself.

In 1854, Frederick Catherwood was a passenger aboard the steamship "Arctic", making a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from Liverpool to New York. On September 27 [See Bourbon (1999); Fox (2003, p. 128). The "Arctic" left port on September 20, which is sometimes (erroneously) given as the date of the collision.] in conditions of poor visibility, the "Arctic" collided with the French steamer "Vesta", and sank with much loss of life, including Catherwood. He was 55 years old.

Catherwood has been the subject of the following biographies and studies:
*von Hagen, Victor W. (1946). "F. Catherwood 1799-1854 - Architect-Explorer of Two Worlds" (with introduction by Aldous Huxley)
*von Hagen, Victor W. (1950). "Frederick Catherwood, Architect"
*von Hagen, Victor W. (1973). "Search for the Maya: The Story of Stephens and Catherwood"
*Bourbon, Fabio (2000)."The Lost Cities of the Mayas: The Life, Art, and Discoveries of Frederick Catherwood"

Notes

References

* |year=1999 |title=The Lost Cities of the Mayas: the Life, Art and Discoveries of Frederick Catherwood |location=Shrewsbury |publisher=Swan Hill |isbn=1-840-37042-4 |oclc=40926474
* |authorlink=Michael D. Coe |year=1992 |title=Breaking the Maya Code |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |isbn=0-500-05061-9
* |year=2003 |title=Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships |location=New York |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=0-060-19595-9 |oclc=51306221
* |year=2006 |title=Cities of Stone: Stephens & Catherwood in Yucatan, 1839-1842 |url=http://www.photoarts.com/harris/z.html |work=Co-Incidents of Travel in Yucatan |publisher=Photoarts Journal (Summer 2006) |accessdate=2007-07-24
* |authorlink=Victor Wolfgang von Hagen |year=1961 |title=The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas: Aztec, Maya, Inca |publisher=World Publishing |location=Cleveland |oclc=225235
* |authorlink=Victor Wolfgang von Hagen |year=1968 |title=F. Catherwood: Architect-Explorer of Two Worlds |publisher=Barre Publishers |location=Barre MT |oclc=512015

External links

* [http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/rarebook/exhibitions/catherwood/index.htm "Drawing From the Past: Maya Antiquity Through the Eyes of Frederick Catherwood"] , online exhibition by Smith College Libraries of Catherwood's "Views of Ancient Monuments" lithographs
* [http://www.casa-catherwood.com/catherwoodinenglish.html "Frederick Catherwood's Lithographs"] , online reproductions of a permanent exhibition of his work at the Casa Frederick Catherwood, Mérida, Yucatán
* Reed College website including all the illustrations of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labná in Stephens and Catherwood's 1843 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan and in Catherwood's 1844 Views of Ancient Monuments. http://academic.reed.edu/uxmal/contents.html


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