Sometimes your dream doesn’t come true until generations after you’re gone! Such was the case with Samuel Morse. We all know Samuel Morse as the inventor of the telegraph and the Morse Code, but his dream as a young man was to be a painter.
Beginning from his college days at Yale and continuing throughout his early years, Morse had gained a fine reputation as a painter. At 40 years old, he made a trip to Paris, believing that he needed to complete his education there to truly make his mark as a painter. While in Paris, he spent time at the Louvre where he began a painting project he called “Gallery Of The Louvre”. In 1832, he returned to New York where he completed his painting, which he believed to be an incredibly valuable work. He was certain that he was on his way to fame and fortune as a painter.
Upon the unveiling of “Gallery Of The Louvre” in New York, Morse was distraught that his painting would bring only $1,300, far short of his asking price of $2,500. In the following years, his life seemed to be full of broken dreams, the greatest of which was not being chosen to paint one of the historic panels for the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington.
In his late 40’s, Morse felt so defeated by not being able to accomplish his dream of being a painter that he actually became ill and considered ending his life. It was at this point in his life that he started working on his plans for the telegraph for which he gained fame and fortune.
Now, how about this unbelievable “story behind the story” . . . in 1982, over a century after Morse’s death, his painting entitled “Gallery Of The Louvre” was sold for $3.25 million . . . which was at that time the highest amount ever paid for a painting by an American artist! I wonder if Samuel Morse was smiling in his grave?
(note: see the entire story in the September 2011 issue of Smithsonian)
