Yale University
John Quidor's "Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman"
Author(s): Christopher Kent Wilson
Source: Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Winter, 1984), pp. 12-19
Published by: Yale University, acting through the Yale University Art Gallery
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40514264
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John Quidor's Ichabod Crane
F lying from the Headless Horseman
Christopher Kent Wilson
John Quidor (1801-1881) is generally regarded as one of America's foremost literary painters. His reputation rests upon
his thirty-two extant paintings, most of
which depict scenes from the legends of
Wahington Irving. Though many of
America's nineteenth century artists produced at least one Irving picture, Quidor
was the only artist to paint these popular
scenes throughout his long career.
Quidor, however, was not interested in
all of Irvings work, which in addition to
American legends included romantic European tales, stories of the American
west, and several biographies. In contrast
to Irving 's wide-ranging literary interests, Quidor focused exclusively upon
Irving s fanciful tales of Dutch New York.
For nearly forty years, he recast Irving 's
popular stories from Knickerbocker's History, The Sketch Book and Tales of a Traveller into his own idiosyncratic vision.
Quidor's Ichabod Crane Flying From the
Headless Horseman at the Yale University
Art Gallery is the artist's earliest extant
painting of an Irving subject (Fig. 1).
The painting depicts the climactic flight
scene from Irvings "Legend of Sleepy
Hollow."
Through spidery evergreens, blasted tree hulks,
and knuckled roots, a horseman in scarecrow
attire gallops towards ghastly incandescence . . . The glare illuminates the rider's face, a
hatchet-mask of terror, and the horse's head that
is distorted with equal anguish: crocodile mouth
agape and under his horn-like brow a bloated,
rolling eyeball . . . Nothing is painted as it would
show itself to the physical eye. Shape departs
from reality to serve effect. Of color, there is
hardly any: the dark brown of midnight foliage,
the black of menace, the white of terror.2
Quidor exhibited his painting at the
1828 exhibition of the National Academy
of Design in New York.3 After the exhibition Quidor retained the painting and apparently returned it to his studio. One of
Quidor's pupils, Thomas B. Thorpe, remembered seeing it there in 1830 when
he began his apprenticeship.
A rudely constructed easel . . . was near one of
the north windows, on the pegs of which rested
a picture that called forth our unbounded enthusiasm and admiration. It was the first oil painting of any merit that we had ever seen. It repre-
sented Ichabod Crane fleeing from the headless
horseman . . . The subject, moreover, was familiar to us both. We both knew Irving s Sketch Book
and Knickerbocker's History by heart.4
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was
On mounting a rising ground, which brought
first published in 18 19 as one of the many
the figure of his fellow traveller in relief against
fanciful stories from Irving 's popular
the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a
Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon.5 During the
cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck on perceiving
that he was headless! - but his horror was still
second quarter of the nineteenth century,
Footnotes
several American painters depicted scenes
more increased, on observing that the head,
I would like to thank Jules D.
Prown and Theodore Stebbins
which should have rested on his shoulders, was from this popular legend. Most of these
as advice and encouragefor their
carried before him on the pommel of the saddle; paintings portrayed Ichabod in his role
ment in the research and prephis terror rose to desperation; he rained a showereither the schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow,
aration of this paper.
the suitor of Katrina Van Tassel, or as the
of kicks and blows upon Gunpowder, hoping,
1
by a sudden movement, to give his companion frightened pedagogue fleeing the legendWashington Irving, The S ketchthe slip -but the spectre started full jump with ary horseman.6
Book of Geoffrey Cray or, Gent.
him. Away then they dashed, through thick and Quidor's Ichabod Crane is the earliest
New York, 1861, p. 450.
2
thin; stones flying, and sparks flashing, at every
extant representation of the flight scene.
bound.1
James
Thomas Flexner, That
When he exhibited his work at the 1828
In Ichabod Crane Flying From the Headless Horseman, Quidor paints a terrorstricken Ichabod riding in full flight
through a dark and foreboding forest.
Academy exhibition, an anonymous critic
Wilder Image ■, Boston, 1962,
p. 23.
for the Morning Courier wrote:
3
Mary Β . Cowdrey, National
But in speaking of his Ichabod Crane, it must be
Academy of Design Exhibition
in direct opposition to praise. The horse is no
Record 1826- 1860, New York,
James Thomas Flexner in his book That horse; not even a hobby horse being unlike any- 1943,11,87.
Wilder Image has written a vivid descrip- thing in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or
4
T. B. Thorpe, "Reminiscences
tion of the painting's mood and action. the waters under the Earth. Old Ichabod, has
12
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Fig. ι
John Quidor, Ichabod Crane
Flying from the Headless Horse-
man, c. 1828. Oil on canvas.
22V8 χ 30 '/i6. Yale University
Art Gallery.
of Charles L. Elliott, Artist,"
Chapman, probably during the
The Evening Post, September
last quarter of the nineteenth
For representative reviews of
century. The painting was then
sold at the Chapman Sale in
191 3 and purchased by Thomas
Evening Post , J une 2 6 , 1819;
30, 1868. This article was
later reprinted in pamphlet
form, T. B. Thorpe, Personal
Reminiscences of C . L. Elliott,
New York, c. 1868.
Except for these early refer-
ences, the painting is not mentioned again in any exhibition
catalogues or sales records until
the late nineteenth century
when it was exhibited in 1897
at the Brooklyn Museum.
("Opening Exhibition,"
Brooklyn Museum, 1897, No.
555). Quidor's painting was
apparently in the possession of
one of the artist's relatives until
it was sold to Colonel Henry T.
5
The S ketch-Book see New York
B. Clarke (Art Collection of the
Late Col. Henry Thomas Chapman,
North American Review, September, 1819] Western Review
and Miscellaneous Magazine,
The Anderson Galleries, New
May, 1820, pp. 244-54; and
York, 1913, No. 352). It was
Quarterly Review, April, 1 82 1 ,
resold at the Clarke sale in 19 19.
(Thomas B. Clarke Sale,
pp. 50-67.
American Art Association,
For American paintings depicting scenes from Washington
Irvings "Legend of Sleepy
1919, No. 18). The painting
was part of the Garvan collection during the second quarter
of the twentieth century. In
1948 the painting was given to
the Yale University Art Gallery
as part of the Mabel Brady
Garvan Collection.
6
Hollow," see Jules D. Prown,
"Washington Irving 's Interest
in Art and His Influence upon
American Painting," M. A.
Thesis, University of Dela-
ware, 1956, pp. 64-66.
13
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Fig. 2
Carle Ver net, Detail of La
Course, c. 1810. After engraving by Jazet. Reproduced from
the book Les Vernets by A.
Fig· 3
John Quidor, Detail oïlchabod
Crane F lying from the Headless
Horseman. Yale University Art
Gallery.
Dayot, Paris: A. Magnier,
1898.
M
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somewhat of Geoffrey Cragon's [sic] Ichabod,
and yet it is not his Ichabod, the Ichabod of No.
9, being really and truly Quidor's Ichabod. The
landscape is bad in the extreme, having neither
appropriate scenery, coloring, perspective, nor
the hour of the incident. Some wag surely must
have been trifling with the good nature of Mr.
Quidor, to induce him to wander far from the
beaten, good, old track. If he turns not now
from the evil of his way, he shall hear from us in
more opposite language. He has industry, perseverance, and a good name: by a proper application of such, next year's exhibition will make
good our assertions in his behalf. He really is a
genius of the first water. 7
The critic writing under the pseudonym "Middle Tint the Second" was
Quidor's friend, the New York sculptor
John Browere.8Browere was quite critical
of Quidor both for his rendering of Ichabod and his horse. The Quidor horse is
certainly not a model of anatomical veracity. Yet, in the Irving legend, Ichabod s
horse is described as lean and gaunt, and
during the flight scene, the horse strains
furiously to outrace the headless horseman. Aware of the literary criteria,
Quidor may have turned to the popular
English and European horse racing prints
which, in their almost stereotyped forms,
would have provided an excellent model
for Ichabod's fleeing horse9 (Figs. 2 and 3).
In contrast to his criticism of the
horse, Browere is somewhat puzzled by
Quidor's depiction of Ichabod Crane,
"Old Ichabod, has somewhat of Geoffrey
Cragon's [sic] Ichabod, and yet it is not
his Ichabod ..." In his bewilderment,
Browere touches upon an important point
which is characteristic of Quidor's work.
Throughout his career as a literary
painter, Quidor rarely works as an illustrator. In most instances, Quidor relies
upon the literary narrative as a point of
departure for a more spirited and often
more penetrating interpretation of a scene
or character. This is true even in Quidor's
earliest works, and it is particularly evident in his Ichabod Crane Flying From the
Headless Horseman.
According to the legend, Ichabod
Crane is a schoolteacher from the mythi-
cal town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving portrays Ichabod as a comical figure who
dreams of marrying Katrina Van Tassel,
the daughter of a wealthy Dutch farmer.
Ichabod, however, is not alone in his
quest for the hand of Katrina, for he is
competing with Brom Bones, the notorious town prankster and ruffian.
One night at a party at the Van Tassel
farm, Ichabod tries to win Katrina s affections with a display of his dancing. His
social graces impress the young Katrina
but infuriate Brom Bones. Certain of his
triumph, Ichabod remains after the party
to court Katrina. Katrina does not respond
to his affections. In a state of despair,
Ichabod leaves the farm and begins his
long ride home through the haunting and
dark woods of Sleepy Hollow.
As Ichabod rides through the woods,
he encounters the headless horseman of
Sleepy Hollow. As the terrifying spectre
emerges from the shadows by the side of
the road, Ichabod sees the legendary figure seated on a black horse with his head
resting on the saddle. In a state of panic,
Ichabod and his old horse Gunpowder
bolt ahead down the road. Despite losing
his saddle during the chase, Ichabod desperately tries to escape from the terrible
phantom without success. Ichabod then
remembers that according to legend the
horseman cannot cross the bridge near the
village church. In desperation Ichabod
frantically heads for the bridge.
7
Review, "On the Works of Living Artists, At the National
Academy of Design. No. 3."
Morning Courier, New York,
No. 346, June 13, 1828. A
few sentences from this review
were quoted by Thomas Seir
Cummings in his Historic Annals of the National Academy of
Design, Philadelphia, 1865, p.
81 . Cummings did not cite the
Morning Courier as the source
for his quotation. This is the
first time that the review has
been cited in its entirety from
its original source.
8
Thomas Seir Cummings iden-
tified "Middle-Tint the Sec-
ond" as the New York sculptor
John H.I. Browere. Thomas
S. Cummings, Historic Annals
of the National Academy of
Design, p. 81.
9
This comparison first appeared
in Christopher Kent Wilson,
"Engraved Sources for Quidor s
Early Work," The American Art
Journal, 8, November, 1976,
19.
10
Review, Morning Courier, June
13, 1828.
11
Irving, Sketch Book, p. 45 1 .
"If I can but reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, "I am safe." Just then he heard the black
steed panting and blowing close behind him; he
even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another
convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder
sprung upon the bridge; he thundered over the
resounding planks; he gained the opposite side;
and now Ichabod cast a look behind to see if his
pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a
flash of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the
goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act
of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored
to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It
encountered his cranium with a tremendous
crash- he was tumbled headlong into the dust,
and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin
rider, passed like a whirlwind. n
15
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Fig. 6-7
Fig. 4
William Heath, Illustration of
Fig- 5
George Cruikshank, The Flight
Ichabod Crane and the Galloping
of Ichabod Crane.
Etching. From Illustrations I,
Encountering the Headless Horse-
London: Samuel Bentley,
1830.
From Illustrations of the Legend
Hessian. Etching. From "The
Beauties of Washington Irving," Glasgow: R. Griffin and
Co., 1830.
F. O. C. Darley, Ichabod Crane
man of Sleepy Hollow.
of Sleepy Hollow. Designed and
Etched by Felix O. C. Darley,
The American Art-Union,
1849, No. 5 and 6.
Contrary to this seemingly tragic ending, Irving reassures us that Ichabod was
not killed by the Horseman's head but
was only knocked off his horse by a large
pumpkin hurled by his disguised archrival Brom Bones. Irving further reveals
that immediately after this humiliating
event, Ichabod fled Sleepy Hollow for
New York City where in later years he
became a successful lawyer and a justice of
the Ten Pound Court.
Many of the leading English and
American illustrators of the nineteenth
century, such as George Cruikshank,
William Heath, and F. O. C. Darley portrayed the popular flight scene from the
Irving Sketch Book (Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7).
These illustrations depict different narrative moments, yet each illustrator cleverly emphasizes the comic resolution of
Ichabod 's flight. For example, during the
flight sequence, Ichabod believes that a
real spectre is pursuing him; in these illustrations, however, the viewer is already aware of the hoax. A close examination of the prints reveals that in each
instance the head and shoulders of a man
are easily discernable beneath the horseman's cloak, and it is also quite evident
that a large pumpkin is held in his hand.
A painting by W. J. Wilgus further
illustrates the point. This painting enti-
tled Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horse-
man was exhibited in the spring of 1835
at the National Academy of Design12
(Fig. 8). Wilgus depicts the legend's cli-
mactic moment when the headless horse-
man rises in his saddle to hurl his head at
the frightened pedagogue. Like the other
illustrators, Wilgus leaves little doubt
that Ichabod is about to meet an embar-
rassing end at the hands of Brom Bones
and his infamous pumpkin. An anonymous critic writing for the New-York Mirror praised Wilgus for his "spirited conception and execution of this comick [sic]
scene."13
In contrast to the pictorial tradition,
Quidor does not focus upon the continuing narrative nor does he emphasize the
flight's broader satiric context. In Qui16
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Fig. 8
Lithograph after painting by
W.J. Wilgus,
Ichabod Crane And the Headless
Horseman, 1835.
Sleepy Hollow Restorations,
Tarry town, New York.
dor's painting there is no fallen saddle ,
village bridge, distant church, infamous
pumpkin, or even a headless horseman. 14
The absence of these key narrative elements suggests that Quidor was not as
concerned with the literary narrative as
he was with the plight of a particular
literary figure.
This unusual portrayal of Ichabod
Crane emphasizes the fear and isolation of
the unwanted pedagogue. At this moment, Ichabod actually believes that he is
fleeing from impending death. This sense
of imminent danger would have been
even more apparent to the contemporary
viewer, for during the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries, the image of
the fleeing horse and rider was often im-
bued with macabre associations of death.
For example, in Goethe's Erlkönig of
12
Cowdrey, National Academy Prior to 1970 the painting did
Exhibition Record, 11, 208. The
contain the shadowy form of a
1835 painting by W.J. Wil-headless horseman (Fig. 9).
gus, a fifteen year old studentDuring a cleaning of the paintof Samuel F. B. Morse, is now
ing it was discovered that the
headless horseman was not a
at the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, D.C. A nine-part of the original compositeenth century chromolitho-tion and represented a much
later addition. After a thorgraph was made after the same
scene by the Buffalo printers ough examination, the decision
was made to restore the paintMooney and Buell. For a discussion of the 1835 painting ing to its original state. The
conservator of the painting,
and its relationship to the
Morton C. Bradley, stated that
chromolithograph, see Chase
Viele, "Two Headless Horse-the horseman was added to the
painting "at a minimum of
men of Sleepy Hollow,"
Antiques, 114, No. 5, 1042- fifty years later and probably
1043.
1ò
Review, "Exhibition of the
National Academy of Design,"
New- York Mirror, 1 2 , June 20 ,
1835, 406.
more." He also stated that he
examined the painting carefully for any traces of a horse-
man which Quidor may have
painted and was subsequently
removed and painted at a later
17
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Fig. 9
John Quiclor, Ichabod CraneFlying from the Headless Horseman, c. 1828. Before restora-
tion. Oil on canvas, 225/s χ
30 '/i6. Yale University Art
Gallery.
date. He said that he found no
such traces. In the original
work, therefore, Quidor only
painted the horse and rider
which we now see. (Conversation between Mr. Bradley and
the author, November 16,
1973.) Until 1970 the paint-
ing was entitled Ichabod Crane
Pursued by the Headless Horse-
man. After restoration, the
painting s original exhibition
1 78 1 , a small boy is seized by death while
his father frantically rides through the
night with the dying boy:
Ό father, dear father! he's grasping meMy heart is as cold as cold can be!'
The father rides swiftly-with terror he gaspsThe sobbing child in his arm he clasps;
He reaches the castle with spurring and dread
But, alack! in his arms the child lay dead. n
title was also restored.
15
Poems and Ballads of Goethe,
translated by W. Ε . Ay toun
and Theodore Martin, New
York, 1 87 1, p. 35.
In Gottfried Burger's Leonora of 1773,
a young woman dreams of her lover who
was killed in distant battle and who returns to carry her away to their marriage
bed, which is the soldier's distant grave.
She lightly on the courser sprung,
And her white arms around William flung . . .
i8
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Fig. 11
George Cruikshank, Wood engraving. Headpiece of "The
Fig. ίο
George Cruikshank, Wood engraving from Points of Humour,
Arab Gray. " A poem in Odds
Part ii. London, 1824.
and Ends in Verse and Prose,
W. H. Merle, London, 183 1.
In swiftest gallop off they go,
The stones and sparks around they throw . . .
The objects fly on every side,
The bridges thunder as they ride;
'Art thou my love afraid?'
Death swiftly rides, the moon shines clear. . . 16
These visions of death were not restricted to German literature as evi-
denced by Robert Burns' Tarn OS K hanter
By the early nineteenth century, the
popularity of the fleeing horse and rider
had become so great that it even inspired
16
Leonora, translated by J. T.
the English caricaturist George Cruik-
shank. In a satiric variation on a well-
Stanley, London, 1796.
17
The Complete Poetical Works of
Robert Burns, Cambridge,
known theme, Cruikshank draws a fran- 1897, p. 92.
18
tic horse and rider trying to escape from
Lord Byron, Poetical Works,
the ominous prongs of a deadly pitchfork London, 1959, p. 346.
(Fig. 10). Cruikshank also illustrates an-
19
For "The Arab Gray" and
(1790) in which a homeward ride at night
Cruikshank s illustration, see
opening stanza of the poem, "The Arab
ends in flight and demonic pursuit.
Odds and Ends by William
Gray"19(Fig. 11).
Henry Merle, Esq., Illustrated
And scarcely had he Maggie rallied,
Quidor's depiction of Ichabod Crane is by George Cruikshank,
When out the hellish legion sallied . . .
clearly a part of this romantic tradition of London, 183 1.
So Maggie runs, the witches follow,
Wi' Monie en eldritch skreich and hollo.
Ah, Tarn! ah, Tarn! Thou'll get thy fairin!
In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin!17
Lord Byron also contributed to this
tradition with his horrifying poem Mazeppa. Mazeppa, a young officer, is captured by the enemy and lashed to the
back of a horse which is set free to careen
through the woods.
My heart turn'd sick, my brain grew sore,
And throbb'd awhile, then beat no more:
other example of the theme from the
flight. Through his suppression of the
narrative, Quidor focuses the viewer's attention directly upon Ichabod and his
struggle to survive. When the painting is
viewed in its broader romantic context,
Ichabod quite literally becomes a personification of flight and impending death
with all of its macabre associations. In the
puzzled but perceptive words of John
Browere, "this Ichabod is really and truly
Quidor's Ichabod."
The skies spun like a mighty wheel;
I saw the trees like drunkards reel,
And a slight flash sprung o'er my eyes,
Which saw no farther: he who dies
Can die no more than then I died;
O'ertortured by that ghastly ride . . . 18
19
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