Images of a Legend
JOHN ROLFE AND
POCAHONTAS
early
1850s, J. W. Glass
A decade after the
unveiling of Chapman's celebrated Baptism, a young portrait painter named James William
Glass hoped to play on Chapman's success with his own, more modest
painting. His Pocahontas and John Rolfe resemble those in Chapman's
mural, and he depicts a foundational event for the baptism—Rolfe's
tutelage of his future wife. But in this painting, as in many other portrayals
of Pocahontas in the 19th century and beyond, she has become the heroine in a
romance; both she and Rolfe appear more interested in each other than in the
crucifix to which he gestures.