Page 120 - Demo

John Greenwood, American, 1727–1792; Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam, c.1752–58; oil on bed ticking; 37 3/4 x 75 inches.
Saint Louis Art Museum, Museum Purchase 256:1948
General Society banquet, which reproduced
in its accordion folds the painting Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam, which was painted on mattress ticking sometime in the generation before the American Revolution by a painter named John Greenwood.
The merchants are all Rhode Islanders, and
ten of them are identified, at least according to traditions handed down in the family that owned the painting for nearly two hundred years. The fellow facing us in the middle of the round table, wearing a dark coat with red facings, is Esek
Hopkins, later commander of the Continental Navy and an Original Member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Smoking a pipe and talking intently to Hopkins is Nicholas Cooke, who became the first governor of independent Rhode Island. To Esek Hopkins’ left (our right) is Stephen Hopkins, dozing with his head resting on his hand. He would later sign the Declaration of Independence. The wigless man passed out in the chair is Joseph Wanton, Cooke’s predecessor as governor. Ambrose Page of Providence is vomiting in Wanton’s pocket. His son Benjamin was a captain in Continental Navy. Alas, the
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