Carl Christian Anton Christensen (November 28, 1831 – July 3, 1912) was a Danish-American artist who is known for his paintings illustrating the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[1] Of him it has been said that he "did more than any other person to capture the images of the history of Mormon migration to Utah and the life lived there".
Christensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. On September 26, 1850, he was baptized into the LDS Church in Copenhagen by George P. Dykes. Christensen subsequently served as a missionary in his native Denmark.
Christensen also served as a missionary in Norway beginning in the fall of 1853. While in Norway, Christensen was the first Mormon missionary to preach in Christiania (now Oslo).[2] While in Christiana, Christensen taught Danquart Anthon Weggeland, who became another prominent early Utah artist.[3] During his time as a missionary in Norway, Christensen was twice put in prison due to government officials not approving of the preaching of Mormonism[4]
In 1857, at the end of his service in Norway, Christensen set off for Utah Territory, stopping en route in England. He had met Elsie Scheel Haarby while serving in Norway, and he and Elsie married in Liverpool, England. They had planned to wait until reaching Utah to get married but leaders felt the trip would be easier if engaged couples got married before starting the journey.[5] and they sailed for America on the Westmoreland.[6] After reaching New York City, they traveled by railroad to Iowa City, Iowa, the end of the line, and from there set out for Utah Territory, traveling with the Christian Christiansen handcart company.[7]
In 1862 Christensen did stage painting for a theatre in Springville, Utah.[8] Early in his time in Utah, he could find so little demand for his artistic skills that he worked as a housepainter.
The first major art work that Christensen undertook while in Utah was a commission from Dimick B. Huntington to do a collection of paintings from the Bible and Book of Mormon, in collaboration with Dan Weggeland.[9]
Christensen is best known for his Mormon Panorama, a series of 23 large paintings that depict the history of the church. Christensen also painted scenes from the Book of Mormon, such as Nephi and Zoram Return with the Record.[10] Christensen's Book of Mormon paintings were originally issued by the Sunday School for use in classrooms; they were later issued in lithography form.[11]
Christensen began touring with the 175feet-long Mormon panorama in 1878. Christensen would transport it about Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, giving presentations along with the panorama. He did this during the winter when he was not busy working on his farm.[12] After Christensen's death the panorama was stored away. Many years later it was discovered again and brought back to light, partly by the efforts of Boyd K. Packer. It would gain its fullest recognition almost a century later when it would be shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.[11]
Christensen also painted some of the murals in the Manti and St. George Temples.[13] [11] Christensen also did paintings for the Manti Tabernacle.
Another theme of some of Christensen's paintings was Manti and its surroundings.[14] [15]
Christensen often collaborated with Dan Weggeland in his work in Utah.
Christensen was commissioned to create a panorama for Charles B. Hancock, formerly a member of the Mormon Battalion, who served as a Latter-day Saint bishop in Payson and traded extensively with the Timpanogos band in Utah Valley. Christensen and at least one other unidentified artist depicted scenes from Missouri to Illinois to California to Utah Territory. This large panorama was last known to be stored in a barn near Bear Lake. They now exist as slides in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.
A description of the slides follows: In Independence, Missouri, on July 20, 1833, a “mob surrounded the printing office and house of W. W. Phelps. Mrs. Phelps, with a sick infant in her arms, and the rest of the children, were forced out of their home, the furniture was thrown into the street and garden, the press was broken, the type [scattered]; the revelations, book-work and papers were nearly all destroyed or kept by the mob; and the printing office and house of W. W. Phelps were both razed to the ground. Having reduced these buildings to a mass of ruins, the mob proceeded to demolish the mercantile establishment of Gilbert, Whitney & Co., and destroy the goods; but when Mr. Gilbert assured them that the goods would be packed by the twenty-third, they desisted from their work of destruction. . . . The mob caught Bishop Edward Partridge and Charles Allen, and dragged them through the maddened crowd, which insulted and abused them along the road to the public square. . . . The two brethren, Partridge and Allen, were stripped of their clothing, and bedaubed with tar, mixed with lime, or pearl-ash, or some other flesh-eating acid, and a quantity of feathers scattered over them.”
Charles Hancock’s father, Solomon, joined the church near Kirtland, Ohio, and was appointed to serve a mission to Missouri in June 1831. He moved to Jackson County by 1833 and fled with his family in November to Clay County, where he was appointed to the Zion high council in 1834. After his first wife died, he married Phebe Adams, June 28, 1836. He moved to Caldwell County by December 1836. He again served as a member of the Zion high council in Far West from 1837 to 1839. I believe this is a scene from the Hancock panorama: Expulsion of the Saints from Far West, Missouri, Nov. 2, 1838. This church headquarters and center of Latter-day Saint activity in Missouri had 150 houses. On July 4, 1838, members laid cornerstones for planned temple. dictated several revelations in area. After Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs’s extermination order of October 27, Far West was surrounded on November 1 by state militia troops commanded by Generals Samuel D. Lucas and Robert Wilson. Church leaders were taken prisoner, and a court-martial was conducted. General Lucas pronounced the death sentence on all prisoners, to be carried out the following morning in the town square. David Atchison and Alexander Doniphan intervened. The militia and mobs drove eight thousand church members from the state. The Dibbles made their way across Missouri, moving first to Quincy and then to Commerce (Nauvoo), Illinois, in the spring of 1840.
The Carthage Jail scene in the Hancock Panorama is similar in many ways to Christensen’s earlier work, but a figure appears at the window (perhaps Willard Richards).
Isaac Morley and his family moved to Illinois, settling in what became known as the “Morley Settlement” or Yelrome, which is Morley spelled backwards. In 1845, when mobs threatened to destroy the settlement, Brigham Young told Solomon, “It is wisdom for you to remove the women and children from Yelrome as fast as you can. . . . We think it best to let them burn up our houses while we take care of our families. . . . Employ the best scribe you have, or half a dozen of them, if necessary, to pen minutely all the movements of the enemy.” Solomon’s home was burnt to the ground, as were many others. He and his family resided in Nauvoo for a season before being forced to flee for their safety to Iowa. They traversed the hills of Iowa, stopping at temporary encampments, before reaching Council Bluffs. Solomon died on December 2, 1847, near Council Bluffs at age fifty-four.
In September 1845 mobs attacked Yelrome. Edmund Durfee was shot and killed by a mob. Church members fled to Nauvoo for safety. In the fire that encircled the community, Isaac lost his home, cooper shop, and grain. Isaac and his family moved to Nauvoo. From there, they trekked across Iowa and the plains on their journey to the West.
On September 10, 1846, a militia of a thousand men attacked Nauvoo. They had guns, cannons, and a singular purpose: drive the Mormons from the state. On September 10, 1846, an anti-Mormon militia made one last push to drive them out. Fearing such an attack, the Saints had fortified the city and built breastworks along major roads, calling themselves the Spartan Band. According to some sources, they fortunately had a few repeating rifles, thanks to the ingenuity of Jonathan Browning, and built a cannon out of a steamboat shaft. They armed 150 men to fight a mob of 1,000. As the militia approached the city, both sides exchanged artillery fire before battling with small arms. Inside the besieged city, a lookout watched from the Nauvoo Temple belltower and reported on the battle to the women and children huddled below. At least three Saints were killed and several were injured. Church members eventually beat back the militia. Each day, the militia regrouped and returned, each time being repelled. The Saints also resorted to guerilla tactics, ambushing militia members from the surrounding woods. But the Mormons knew they could not withstand the siege for long. On September 16, they surrendered. They were given five days to pack their belongings and head west.In July 1846, with the encouragement of Brigham Young and under the authority of US Army captain James Allen, the Mormon Battalion was mustered in at Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory.
California experienced its first celebration of American Independence Day on July 4, 1847, from a hill overlooking Los Angeles. Early that morning, at sunrise, US troops at Fort Moore raised the Stars and Stripes and fired a 13-gun artillery salute.
In Utah Territory, the Walker War grew out of decades of aggressive colonization, competing demands for land and resources, and disruption of the trade with Mexico. Brigham Young had issued an “extermination order” on January 31, 1850, to stop “the operations of all hostile Indians and otherwise act as the Circumstances may require, exterminating such, as do not separate themselves from their hostile Clans, and sue for peace.” In February, General Daniel H. Wells’s forces executed about 102 of the Timpanogos Utes, exterminating hundreds more. History had repeated itself with new aggressors and new victims.
In 1853 Wakara claimed he had “always been opposed to the whites settling on his lands” and that “the whites want everything and will give the Indians nothing.” They were at an impasse. Tensions were high. The dry grass needed only a spark. On July 15, 1853, members of the Timpanogos band wanted to trade goods at James Ivie’s home in Springville when Ivie tried to intervene in an argument. He killed one of Wakara’s people. After braves sought a life for a life, Utah territorial militia captain (and Payson bishop) Charles B. Hancock (shown bottom center) went to Wakara’s camp. Arapeen intervened with Wakara and Peteetneet. Arapeen could delay the violence for only one day. Hancock rode to get Young’s counsel and tried to return the next day before anyone was killed. Hancock failed to find a fresh team and return in time. In retribution, a Timpanogos man shot and killed Alexander Keele in Payson on July 18. The next day, Timpanogos raiders attacked Springville, Spanish Fork, and Nephi.
Indian Fight at Salt Creek (east of Nephi) (26 September 1853). Early in the morning of September 26, 1858, Hancock and a group of militia surprised members of the Timpanogos band who had committed depredations. Hancock began peace negotiations when his superior officer arrived and ordered the Timpanogos men to surrender. Hancock was shot in the head but escaped.
Indian Farm with Chief (Peteeneet’s) Timpanogos Band (1857). After the Walker War ended, 120 members of Wakara’s band were baptized in Manti’s City Creek in 1854. That year Young and Indian agent Garland Hurt enlarged the Spanish Fork reservation to twenty square miles. They built two other Indian farms in Millard County and Sanpete County, but the cost was becoming more than Young wanted to pay. Hurt criticized how the Indian lands were being occupied, the game depleted, and the Indians baptized with little knowledge. In 1857 President James Buchanan sent a military force to replace Young as governor. In the war frenzy, settlers attacked California-bound emigrants in Mountain Meadows. When Hurt received the early account of that massacre, he prepared to flee the territory. Hancock’s troops came to detain him. But Chief Peteetneet’s band created a diversion while Hurt rode away. The reservation fell into disarray, and later Chief Black Hawk gathered at this farmhouse to launch the Black Hawk War.
During his first days in Utah, Christensen found little time to paint. He did various odd jobs such as laying brick and burning charcoal as well as farming.
Christensen wrote many LDS hymns in Danish.[4] Some of his translated texts are still in use. Christensen also wrote poetry and contributed to Bikuben. Later he would serve as an editor of that publication. He was also a coauthor of the History of the Scandinavian Mission.[4]
Christensen was an instructor in drawing and Danish at the Sanpete Stake Academy (now Snow College).
Christensen served a second mission from 1865 to 1868. He went on a third mission to Denmark from 1887 to 1889, during which he worked as the editor of the Scandinaviens Stjerne.
Christensen was the Sanpete Stake patriarch in 1901. He also worked in the LDS Church Historian's Office where he compiled materials related to the history of the church in Scandinavia.
In a 1976 speech given at Brigham Young University, LDS Church apostle Boyd K. Packer recounted the rediscovery of Christensen's work:[16]
Christensen's 1900 painting Handcart Pioneers (not part of Mormon Panorama) "has become the most widely published painting of the Mormon pioneer experience by an actual pioneer."