Anne Weber: Great-grandniece of artist John Mulvany, painter of Custer’s Last Rally, speaks at Art for Lunch

More than 40 years ago, Anne Weber’s mother asked her to try to find out more about their “Uncle John,” who was supposedly a famous artist in his day. She first uncovered an obituary in the New York Times saying he was a drunken derelict who had committed suicide jumping off a bridge. From that day forward, she has been on a quest to locate his paintings and set the record straight. Lots of research and two books later, she has cleared his name.

She confirmed Mulvany attended the National Academy of Design, the most prestigious American art school at that time. He lived and worked in several cities, including Washington, D.C., where he worked for famed photographer Matthew Brady, Chicago and St. Louis. He then traveled to Europe, studying in London, Paris, and then Munich for two years.

A trip to Iowa to see his brothers prompted the painting Preliminary Trail of a Horse Thief A Scene in a Western Justice’s Court, which he sold for $5,000, a lot of money at that time. Just as the U.S. was celebrating its Centennial, commemorating 100 years of independence, Americans in the East learned of the death of George Armstrong Custer and all his men. Mulvany soon went west, interviewing participants in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, called the Battle of the Greasy Grass by the Native Americans. Ready to begin the monumental painting he had in mind, he went to Kansas City. There he met Fredric Remington, who was not making art at the time. Remington’s biographer credits Mulvany with convincing Remington to go back to New York and create Western art.

Upon finishing Custer’s Last Rally, the artist took it on a press tour, visiting New York and Boston. The famed poet Walt Whitman wrote a particularly moving and heartfelt review of the work, proclaiming it a “true American picture.” The 11 by 20 foot painting would then spend the next 17 years traveling the country where visitors paid a quarter to view the masterwork.

Tragedy struck when the building in Philadelphia where Custer’s Last Rally was being exhibited was sold, including the contents. The sale didn’t go through, but Henry J. Heinz, founder of Heinz foods, winds up owning the work. He would display Custer’s Last Rally at the Heinz headquarters in New York, at the amusement pier in Atlantic City, and at his auditorium in Pittsburg into the 1940s.

The painting then hopped around from owner to museum to owner to museum for many years. In 2023, the Booth Western Art Museum was gifted Custer’s Last Rally by the Brad Briner family of North Carolina. After extensive restoration by the Atlanta Art Conservation Center, it now hangs at the Booth. Anne Weber had never seen the painting in person prior to her visit to the Booth. She was overwhelmed with emotion, having studied it for more than 40 years and then finally seeing it in all its glory.

Want to know more – hear the whole story from Anne Weber – just visit our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXH1Ulfo74.

To see the painting for yourself, purchase general admission tickets on our website.

The Booth Museum is open: Tuesday – Saturday: 10 AM – 5 PM, Sunday: 1 – 5 PM and the 2^nd Thursday of every month 10 AM – 8 PM.