Over the past two summers it has become clear that the creation of The Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley wasn’t just a single event. As he painted the panorama, John Egan made numerous edits to his own work. We’ve already seen this editing process in Scene 17, which was inserted into the panorama at a later date and incorporates a different type of paint.

Another way in which we have learned about Egan’s artistic process is via his repainting of earlier work. Occasionally, Egan would return to paint over areas that he had already finished, in order to fix small errors or edit details. As the panorama suffered damage in later years, this outer layer of overpaint began flaking off, revealing Egan’s earlier work underneath.

Detail from Scene 24: Temple of the Sun by Sunset