Sachi Yanari-Rizzo, Research Curator
Back in 2010, as you walked into the exhibition 1934: A New Deal for Artists at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, a striking painting by Daniel Celentano hung on the title wall. Festival, owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, captured the spirit of an Italian American community with a celebration and procession in front of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Daniel Celentano (born Donato[i]) enjoyed painting depictions of everyday life of New York’s neighborhood residents at home, on public transportation, and on the streets. FWMoA purchased a fascinating mural sketch of a historical event by Celentano, the final battle in the War of 1812, known as the Battle of New Orleans. His earthy palette and dramatic composition feel reminiscent of Thomas Hart Benton’s paintings and murals. In fact, Celentano was Benton’s first student, studying with him at the age of 12.
Celentano received further art training at the Cape Cod School with Charles Hawthorne, National Academy of Design, and New York School of Fine and Applied Arts (now Parsons School of Design) with Howard Giles. Celentano exhibited steadily from 1930 to 1943, including group shows at the Art Institute of Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art.
Through President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the U.S. government administered four public art programs between 1933 and 1942: the Public Works of Art Project, Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project (FAP), the Treasury Relief Art Project, and the Section of Fine Arts. The FAP alone provided employment to artists, leading to the creation of 108,000 easel paintings, 11,300 prints, 18,000 sculptures, and 2,500 murals.
Celentano gained experience painting murals as Benton’s assistant and with William Palmer at the Queens General Hospital. Celentano’s own murals, largely funded through the FAP, can be found at the Queens Borough Public Library Gallery, Jamaica, NY (1934); Municipal Building (Old Post Office), Vidalia, GA (1938); P.S. 150, Queens, NY (1940); and Grumman Aircraft Corporation, Bethpage, NY (1942) when he worked there.
Celentano’s Battle of New Orleans (1937) is not listed on the U.S. General Services Administration’s public art collection website. Perhaps the sketch was an unsuccessful proposal. A 1943 mural by Ethel Magafan came up in search results for other paintings of the same subject and time period. It was a commissioned work for the newly constructed Recorder of Deeds Building, located at 515 D Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
On December 1, 1942, the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts announced a competition for seven murals that would tie in history with the new Recorder of Deeds Building. Although a municipal entity, its location in the District of Columbia warranted the federal government’s administration over the “embellishment” of new buildings. Typically, the Section of Fine Arts granted commissions through a call for anonymous proposals. This was open to all artists regardless of economic status, unlike the FAP that was a relief program for unemployed artists. The jury (or panel) for the Recorder of the Deeds Building comprised painters Captain Henry Billings, E. Simms Campbell, Kindred McLeary, and Henry Varnum Poor as well as James V. Herring, Howard University, Edward B. Rowan, Section of Fine Arts, and Dr. William J. Thompkins, Recorder of Deeds.
Although confirmation of Celentano’s participation has been elusive, the most convincing evidence is inscribed on the back side of his oil sketch: “C. Mural East Wall Main Foyer / 14’4” x 5’8”. An interview with winning muralist Magafan verified the required theme for the $1,200 commission: “My last mural was for the Recorder of Deeds Building. And this time, they specified the subject matter, and they wanted the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson.”[ii] The competition prescribed the mural’s size for each space as well. Magafan’s painting measured 14’ 4” x 5’8”—the same dimensions recorded on the back of Celentano’s painting.[iii] According to a New York Times article from 1942 reporting on the mural competition, the writer confirmed the planned location and subject: “On the east wall of the main foyer will be a painting of the Battle of New Orleans in 1814.”[iv]
It is interesting to compare Celentano and Magafan’s interpretations of the same historical moment. She explained in an interview the necessity to research the subject. General Andrew Jackson is recognizable in both works, wearing a navy-blue uniform with gold braiding and ornamental shoulder pieces (epaulets), as seen in a color lithograph by Kurz & Allison from ca. 1890. A pronounced divider between the red-coated British and Americans is the fortification protecting the American soldiers, fashioned of mud and cotton bales. Both Celentano and Magafan’s paintings emphasize the roles of African Americans moving large cotton bales by their prominent placement in the works, which was not common in past depictions.
Positions for the Recorder of the Deeds of the District of Columbia involved handling land deeds and other legal documents. Appointments, made by the president, were available to African Americans and seen as prestigious achievements. Frederick Douglass held this position from 1881 to 1886. Many federally sponsored murals portrayed local, community-focused themes. The Recorder of the Deeds murals, however, highlighted patriotic contributions of African Americans throughout the country’s history. Art focusing on Black successes had precedents, but this was intended for an unsegregated, public space.
The main figures in Magafan’s narrative occupy a shallow space in the foreground made up of static groupings that can be read in a horizontal progression. This is in keeping with friezes in architectural settings. The Black men who haul cotton bales are centrally located, but greater distinction is bestowed to Jackson, who reviews the group on horseback. The British soldiers are in the distance.
Celentano’s conflict is dynamic, in comparison, as the cotton balers in the foreground are pressed up to the picture plane and the viewer. The artist placed figures diagonally, creating further drama and movement in the composition. This leads our eye to Jackson, who stands out on his white horse in the left section of the painting. He is far off in the background though, and only schematically rendered at this point. The British soldiers are in close proximity as one attempts to climb over the fortification but falls as he is shot down.
Free and enslaved African Americans contributed to the victory, recruited by Jackson under the false promise of freedom. The competition instructions provided descriptions for the mural content. It read, “The mural should depict soldiers of the Attakapas District and slaves piling up the cotton bales for bulwarks with Major General Andrew Jackson, Commander-in-Chief, directing the work in the midst of battle.”[v] It further outlined that there were two battalions on the battlefield with Jackson, including one led by Major Pierre Lacoste and the other by Major Louis D’Aquin. Historian Sara A. Butler observed that Magafan (and Celentano), unfamiliar with the history, misunderstood their racial identity and painted white soldiers instead.”[vi] It wasn’t explicitly explained that both were battalions of Free Men of Color.
The puzzling element in this theory is the 1937 date, next to the artist’s signature. The competition instructions mandated that submissions must be unsigned, perhaps then this was something that Celentano added later. We will probably never know if the date is accurate or not. The groundbreaking for the new building was in 1940, and the mural competition was publicly announced in 1942. Interestingly, a set of painted portraits and busts of past recorders were commissioned in 1936 and funded by the FAP, suggesting it was a preamble to an ambitious mural program.
[i] Daniel Celentano’s grandson Gregory M. Celentano explains that Donato was his birth name and Daniel was his Anglicized name, noted in a comment in response to “The 1930s Little Italy of a New York–born painter,” Ephemeral New York, October 11, 2012.
[ii]“Oral History Interview with Ethel Magafan, 1964 Nov. 5,” Archives of American Art, November 5, 1964
[iii]Ethel Magafan’s mural dimensions were included in Historic Preservation Review Board Application for Historic Landmark or Historic District Designation for the Recorder of the Deeds Building,
[iv] “Murals to Honor Negro in America; Series for Recorder of Deeds Building in Capital to Show Contribution to Nation,” New York Times, December 3, 1942,
[v] Many thanks are due to Peter Sefton, Co-Chair, Landmarks Committee, DC Preservation League for providing me with a copy of the competition instructions for the Recorder of the Deeds Building.
[vi] Sara A. Butler, “Ground Breaking in New Deal Washington, DC: Art, Patronage, and Race at the Recorder of Deeds Building,” Winterthur Portfolio 45, no. 4 (Winter 2011): 304,