[2] This view was quickly reflected in the art and culture of the abolitionist movement, with Brown oftentimes being portrayed as a Christlike martyr.

In 1882, New York manufacturer Robbins Battell commissioned Irish-American painter Thomas Hovenden to produce a painting of Brown's execution.

[1] The painting eventually came into the possession of Battell's son in law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel, who gave the work to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1897.

Aspects such as the clothing worn by the subjects in frame are accurate; Hovenden went so far as to interview witnesses to the event, including Brown's jailer.

[1] The depiction of Brown kissing a slave child originated in an account of the execution published in the New York Tribune on December 6, 1859, and repeated in other newspapers, illustrations and early biographies.