Peter Grain

Peter Grain (c. 1785 – 1857) was a French-American artist who achieved success in the United States. Known for his panoramas, landscapes, portraits, dioramas, portrait miniatures, and theatrical designs, he was also an architect and the author of at least one stage play. His family was involved in theatrical design in New York, Philadelphia and other major American cities for at least two generations.

Born in France, Grain was originally a performer and playwright with the Circus of Pépin and Breschard, a company which toured the United States from 1807 until 1815. On August 2, 1809, Pépin and Breschard presented his play Billy, or the Reward of a Good Action in New York City. This "New Pantomime" included "combats" on horseback, making it an early example of hippodrama. Grain was cast as the title character. His billing as "Mr. Grain" can be seen in other advertisements for the company's 1809 season.

Grain's earliest recognition as a painter occurred in Maryland in 1815, where he created a setting for The Hero of the North; or, The Deliverer of His Country performed by an amateur company in Washington, DC. The setting included the Star Spangled Banner and portrayed Fort McHenry and the "Victory of Lake Champlain." He advertised himself as a "drawing master" in Richmond, Virginia in 1822.

In 1823 Grain's Picture of the Shipwreck of the Packet Albion, portraying the loss of the New York and Liverpool Line Ship Albion, on the Coast of Ireland in April, 1822, on one hundred and twenty feet of canvas, was viewed by the public in Charleston, S.C. He was employed by Henry Hanington, dioramist (panorama painter), in 1836. The Grain name was used as the principal painter in Charles Kean's revivals of Shakespeare's Richard III (1845), and The Life and Death of King John (1846). During 1849 Grain exhibited the Grand Panorama of Scotts Battles in Mexico, commemorating the 1847 Mexican-American War exploits of General Winfield Scott.

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