The Royal Army in 1845 sent out Lieutenants Henry James Ware and Mervin Vavasour to evaluate American presence in the Pacific Northwest and British ability to militarily respond. The political crisis brewing since the late 1830s responsible for Warre’s mission across the North American continent, however, dissipated by the time Warre returned to Britain.
THE SPY AND HIS BOOK
Henry Warre joined the army at the age of 18 after leaving the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. With a lot of spare time allowed by his choice of a military career, Warre enjoyed drawing and painting. He became aide-de-camp to his uncle who was commander of British forces in North America. With his artistic abilities, he was a natural for selection to help evaluate the British presence in Oregon.
Lithograph from his book shows the route taken by Warre and Vavasour in 1845-1846.
From Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory.
Coming back from his long trek, he completed enough drawings to print a collection of twenty of his hand-colored lithographed views on 16 sheets plus one lithographed map colored in outline showing their journey. The pages gilted, included five pages of text.
An original hand colored copy (the book was originally offered in black and white as well) of Warre’s work recently sold at an auction through Christie’s on 26 May 2022 for $107,100. A digital online copy of his work in its colored version can be found at here. Warre’s drawings comprise some of the most important early impressions of the Pacific Northwest from a European perspective.
LITHOGRAPHY
Lithography – literally “stone writing” – originated earlier in the late 18th century, a product of a German actor and playwright, Johann Alois Senefelder. His process of using greasy, acid resistant ink on smooth limestone slabs allowed the first planographic prints. The process of chromolithography, developed in 1848 (the same year his book came out) still had not progressed far from its infancy and color was added by hand.
How involved Henry Warre was in the process of developing the stones to produce prints of his watercolors is not a subject recorded online, at least. Originally, lithographs were monochromatic prints, using only black ink. If colors were desired, an artist hand-colored the image afterwards to create a final product. Eventually, about the same time Warre’s book became published, chromolithography developed. This process involved using several stones colored separately. The stones then needed perfect alignment to produce an image with the different colors giving a single colorized picture.
Warre’s Sketches of north america and the oregon territory
Warre’s book is noted as hand-coloured, chromolithography probably too recent. Was Warre involved in preparing the stones or did he have a say in the hand coloring? There does not seem to be a record online, at least. His water-colored renderings received alterations by his lithographer – most changes involved figures drawn in his scenes transformed into other figures (Canadian trappers became Native Americans dressed in Plains Indian garb, for example).
WARRE BEYOND OREGON
Returning to England, Warre gained promotion to captain. Then, following service in Ireland and the Ionian Islands, he married Georgiana-Emily Lukin in 1855. Two months later he gained promotion to lieutenant-colonel. Ordered out to join the 57th Regiment in the Crimea, he took command of the regiment upon the death of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Shadforth. 1855 also saw Warre named a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He also took time to publish another art book Sketches in the Crimea.
Garrisoned with the 57th to Malta in 1856, he gained another promotion to colonel in 1858. Leading the regiment to Bombay in 1859 just after the conclusion of the Sepoy Rebellion. This was the same year he gained appointed to brigadier general.
He continued to lead the regiment to New Zealand during the Māori Wars from 1861 to 1865. He arrived in New Zealand on the ship Lord Worsley in February 1861. Returning to England, Warre eventually became the commander of the Bombay Army in 1878 serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War before his retirement in 1881. In recognition of his long exemplary military service, Henry Warre became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He died in London 3 April 1898 at 79 years of age.
WARRE’S PRODIGOUS WORKS
As he traveled the world in the army, he continued painting from his experiences. Warre painted and drew in pencil and watercolor – much easier to use in the field. His New Zealand drawings and watercolors are held in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Auckland Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery, Hocken Library and the National Library of Australia. Canadian watercolors and drawings are found in the Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa. Other drawings – India, the Mediterranean – lie elsewhere.
LITHOGRAPHER ALTERATIONS
Some of his lithographs show alterations from his original works. For example, his Natives at Fort Vancouver shows Native Americans wearing headdresses and clothing of Plains Indians while his original rough sketch includes figures probably either French Canadian or Metis (mixed Canadien and Native heritage). The additional Native Americans added by the lithographer probably shows the locals in appearance fitting English assumptions regarding Native Americans of the time.
A LAST COLLECTION ON RETURN FROM INDIA
Warre retired from the Army still in India in 1881. His return journey to England took him east to Singapore, Shanghai, Japan and onto San Francisco. He remained in California during most of July over which time he drew several pictures including several from a visit to Yosemite. From California he took a train to Salt Lake City, Chicago, Niagara, Toronto, Montreal and New York before catching a ship home to England at the end of August. At Niagara Falls, he drew several pictures.
By September, back in England, Warre continued drawing several more views of the English countryside. In total, he gathered another collection of 24 pictures – 14 from scenes he encountered in the United States. One of these collections went for $13,860 in a Christie auction in 2023.
THE ENGINEER
His compatriot, Mervin Vavasour, came from the Royal Engineers. His father, Colonel Henry William Vavasour returned to Canada as commander of the Royal Engineers in Canada not long after their mission to the West. Mervin attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in England – he was born and raised in Canada. After further education at the Royal Engineer Establishment (School of Military Engineering) at Chatham, Vavasour gained assignment to Canada in 1841.
Vavasour had the task of drawing plans of the various Hudson Bay forts along their trek as well as geographical features of military importance. A map of Cape Disappointment and Tongue Point at the mouth of the Columbia are prime examples showing areas where the British could possibly set up artillery batteries from which they could control both the entrance to the river from the ocean and control of the river beyond. His drawing of Fort Vancouver represents the National Park Service reproduction of the original fort.
his findings and aftermath
Mervin Vavasour’s report – much in common with Warre’s opinions – concluded the British Army, if deployed in the Oregon region, would face substantial obstacles. He found HBC forts in poor readiness either as fortifications or other as facilities for military uses. Significant numbers of American settlers had already and were continuing to cross into the territory via the established Oregon Trail – shown to be usable by American troops while the British did not have such roads available. Lack of serviceable crossings of the Rocky Mountains posed severe potential problems to British supply lines.
Vavasour sailed to England in October 1846 and served in Ireland with the Ordnance Survey of Ireland gaining promotion to 2nd captain in 1849. After a period of sick leave in 1850, he went on to serve in the West Indies from 1851 to 1852 before going on half-pay in 1853. Half-pay was often a device in which the army put non-performing officers out to pasture given half pay, but never to be recalled to service. Possibly Ogden’s observations held too true? Vavasour died in 1866 at the age of 45.
WARRE’S SKETCHES
lithographic changes
Several of Warre’s sketches underwent editorial changes. As with his sketch of Fort Vancouver, Warre drew several vaguely defined individuals who were either Native Americans or French-Canadian fur trappers. The figures were added to help obscure Warre’s military ulterior purposes. With the Oregon question settled by the time of his return from the West, the figures changed into Native Americans dressed in Plains Indian garb, more popular and readily recognizable to potential English readers.
Henry Warre completed numerous landscape sketches of the region. Here is a mountain rising above the east side of the Willamette Valley. The lithograph shows another embellishment of Warre’s sketch. The original again featured two similarly vague individuals – again, either Native Americans or French-Canadian fur trappers. And again, in contrast, the English lithographer clearly depicts two Natives resembling Plains Indians.
The romantic landscape sketched by Warre shows the Kalapuyan impact on the landscape. Prior to the influx of large numbers of American settlers into the Willamette Valley in the 1840s, various Kalapuyan groups annually burned sections of the valley in the summer and fall. This tried to prevent the spread of dense forests in the valley. The burns maintained open prairies and small oak stands essential for plant and animal life crucial to the Kalapuyans’ year.
more changes in furture works
Here another original versus the lithographic version. Warre sits in a deck chair with a book inside a wooden hut. The 57th Regiment’s colors rolled up and crossed over and leaning against the wall with a fireplace behind him. Sun streams through a small window onto the table in front of Warre. On the table, ink, writing materials and Warre’s cap. A bed and a trunk are against the wall behind covered with pictures. A shelf above the pictures holds bottles, jars and boxes while below the shelf to the right, clothes are hanging. The artist partially erased his own face. In the lithograph, Warre becomes visible once again.
An interesting observation of Warre’s military prowess appears on the online posting from the National Army Museum from Lieutenant Joshua Cunliffe Ingham of the 57th (The West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot – Warre transferred from the 14th Regiment to the 57th in 1847.
“Warre has joined out here; he wrote to Col Shadforth to say that he could neither ride nor walk, but when he heard from the Horse Guards that he would not get his Lt. Colonelcy until he joined here he came out, and looks as well and strong as any one. This morning he tried to drill the Regiment but made a total failure, in fact I could have done it much better myself. If he commanded for 2 months we should be worse than a Militia; from what I have seen of him I like him very well as a man, but as a soldier he is worth nothing.”