日志
“The Unfinished Revolution” - The Atlantic
||
“The Unfinished Revolution,” The Atlantic’s November issue, marks 250 years of the American experiment. For the cover image, the artist Joe McKendry painted a tableau of figures drawn from the stories in the issue.
“Some of the figures will be instantly recognizable—Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson—and some of the depictions are based on historical portraiture,” creative director Peter Mendelsund writes. “Other figures will be less familiar. Standing beside George Washington is a man he enslaved. Like thousands of enslaved people, Harry Washington abandoned the plantation when the war began and fought for Great Britain. No image of this Washington survives. For such figures, McKendry imagined their visages, taking cues from written descriptions when possible.”
“No occasion would have brought all of these people together in the same room (certainly, it is difficult to imagine King George in the same room as the other George),” Mendelsund continues.
“They represent different sides of the war, of the period’s political ferment, and of early American society itself. One figure existed only in a work of fiction. But together they convey the ambition of this special issue: to capture the Revolutionary Era in all of its complexity, contradictions, and ingenuity.”
“Some of the figures will be instantly recognizable—Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson—and some of the depictions are based on historical portraiture,” creative director Peter Mendelsund writes. “Other figures will be less familiar. Standing beside George Washington is a man he enslaved. Like thousands of enslaved people, Harry Washington abandoned the plantation when the war began and fought for Great Britain. No image of this Washington survives. For such figures, McKendry imagined their visages, taking cues from written descriptions when possible.”
“No occasion would have brought all of these people together in the same room (certainly, it is difficult to imagine King George in the same room as the other George),” Mendelsund continues.
“They represent different sides of the war, of the period’s political ferment, and of early American society itself. One figure existed only in a work of fiction. But together they convey the ambition of this special issue: to capture the Revolutionary Era in all of its complexity, contradictions, and ingenuity.”
