James Wall Schureman

Period1845

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions30.25 × 25 in. (76.8 × 63.5 cm)

SignedSigned lower right, "A. Tracy / 1845." A further inscription on the frame reads, “Framed by D. Sansbury Eatontown Mo. Co. NJ / In the year A. D. 1850.”

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineBequest of Edmund Schureman Campbell, 1950

Object number3318

DescriptionYoung man with long brown hair facing left, wearing a dress uniform of the U. S. Army. It includes a navy blue tunic, silver collar, silver epaulets, white sash with a gold buckle inscribed "U. S." within a silver wreath, a gold dress sword, and a feathered shako hat resting on a table next to his right arm. He is sitting in a red upholstered chair with his overcoat draped over its back. His right arm rests on a table covered with a red and black floral tablecloth.
Curatorial RemarksThe portrait is signed in the lower left “A. Tracy / 1845.” In a letter to his sister, Mary S. Campbell of Shrewsbury, dated 18 August 1846, Schureman wrote “Am glad to hear that you have received my likeness &c.” The donor was her grandson. A further inscription on the frame reads, “Framed by D. Sansbury Eatontown Mo. Co. NJ / In the year A. D. 1850.” Dunbar Sansbury (1810-1865) was a local cabinetmaker. NotesThis portrait is a most exceptional depiction of a young U. S. Army officer in full dress uniform. James Wall Schureman (1822 - 1852) was born in Shrewsbury, a son of James Schureman and Susan Wall. He graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1842, rising quickly to 1st Lieutenant of the 2nd U. S. Infantry. He was first stationed in Louisiana, and then during the rebellion in Canada at Buffalo Barracks in New York from 1844 to 1845. It was during this stay that Schureman sat for military artist Lt. Albert Tracy (1818 - 1893). He then went on to service in Michigan, Kentucky, Mexico with Gen. Winfield Scott, Missouri, New York, and finally California. Schureman died at the age of twenty-nine of a ruptured blood vessel in his lung aboard a ship in San Francisco Bay that was headed for Hawaii. He was interred in the Naval Cemetery at Benicia, CA. One obituary read, “he won all hearts by his amiability, his kind and gentle nature, and his upright bearing as a man. In all relations of life, he was frank, manly, and just.”

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