Samuel morse paintings louvre

Samuel F. B. Morse was an American painter who graduated from Yale University and went on to the Royal Academy in England where he studied painting. Yes, it was him who invented the telegraph and Morse code, no small feats, which allowed for the laying of the Transatlantic cable in 1858 and greatly affected the outcomes of both the Mexican-American and Civil War. Disappointed with his success as a painter, Morse became an inventor.

But previously Morse painted this painting.

From 1830-1832 Morse traveled to Europe to further improve his painting skills stopping in Paris where he painted “The Gallery of the Louvre”; this large 6’ x 9’ oil on canvas painting included miniature paintings of 38 of the Louvre’s most famous paintings including works by Veronese, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, Titian, Jouvenet, Murillo, Poussin, Vernet, and Reni.

For this canvas, Morse imaginatively ’reinstalled’ them in one of the museum’s grandest spaces, the Salon Car