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.