ART OF SETH EASTMAN — McDERMOTT 579 



Eastman, whose appointment dated from January 22, 1833, must 

 have known Leslie and may have had some sliglit opportunity to study 

 under liim. Much more important to the young officer-artist, how- 

 ever, was Leslie's successor. Kobert W. Weir on May 8, 1834, was 

 named to the post whicli he was to fill for many years. Although 

 only 5 years older than Eastman, he was already well known and 

 highly thought of as a painter. Of this opportunity Eastman did 

 make use; on one later occasion, at least. Weir was specifically men- 

 tioned as Eastman's teacher. 



Eastman's duty during these 7 years on the faculty was military 

 draftsmanship, and his serious concern with it is evident by his publi- 

 cation of a "Treatise on Topographical Drav>'ing" (1837), which was 

 used as a text at the Academy. The West Point JMuseum possesses a 

 specimen of his technical work in a copy of a "Survey of Public Lands 

 at West Point, 1723." It was probably the publication of his book and 

 his growing repute as a painter that led to his election to the professor- 

 ship of topographical drawing and paintijig in elefferson College, Mis- 

 sissippi, in 1839 — an invitation, however, which he declined. 



Under Weir's direction Eastman must have gone seriously to work 

 as a painter. A little oil on paper, "View of West Point," inscribed 

 "Lieut Eastman Military Academy,"' must have been painted not later 

 than 1835, for a lithograph by Pendleton, apparently made after it, 

 was copyrighted in that year. 



By 1836 Eastman had progressed sufficiently to have a canvas 

 exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York. The 

 New York Mirror (June 25, 1836), admiring this picture, welcomed 

 "this pupil of an accomplished master (Weir) to his stand among our 

 landscape painters." The following year the National Academy of 

 Design hung another of Eastman's paintings, and in 1838 eight of 

 his pictures were accepted by them. Five of these were local sub- 

 jects, the other three paintings beiiig the earliest recorded of his 

 western scenes. In praising one of these paintings ("Fort Snelling 

 on the Mississippi near the Falls of St. Anthony") the Mirror (June 

 0, 1838) declared Eastman's works, as those of an amateur, "entitled 

 to great praise. His distances and skies are generally extremely 

 well-managed. His foregrounds, we think, want more warmth, and 

 his figures should be more gracefully drawn." 



After this considerable display of his talent, we are not surprised to 

 find Eastman in 1838 elected an "honorary member amateur" of the 

 National Academy of Design. This year he exhibit-ed two more Hud- 

 son Valley scenes, both offered for sale. In the fall one painting 

 was shown in New York at the Apollo Gallery (forerunner of the 

 American Art Union). 



Five more canvases made their first appearance in the 1840 spring 

 show of the National Academy, but since Eastman was transferred 



