How to Use the Images

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Painting 3: Battle of Oriskany.
Painted by Frederick C. Yohn, 1977.

This painting was commissioned to commemorate the bicentennial of the Battle of Oriskany.

Questions for Painting 3

1. Make a list of actions occurring in this painting. What action or actions seem to be the most important based on the way the artist has composed this picture?

2. How can you tell from this composition that an ambush is going on? Which army is the artist depicting? Who do you think the central figure in the painting is intended to represent? Why do you think the artist depicted him after he was wounded rather than before?

3. What emotions are depicted in this painting? Compare the emotions depicted by the artist with those expressed in the original accounts in Reading 2. Do you think the artist captured the feelings of the combatants of Oriskany? When you look at this painting, what emotion or emotions does it cause you to react with?

* The image on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Painting 3, but be aware that the file will take as much as 45 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.