Civil War Art Conclusion
It’s the final strokes of the “Civil War Art of the Era & Eyewitnesses” blog series. Thank you to the writers and readers who have explored this topic and visual primary sources with us!
The Civil War art created during the 19th Century and/or by veterans gives a powerful tool for examining the war experience as seen and remembered by those who lived in that era. There are many more excellent pieces of art and artists’ stories to explore, so perhaps this series will inspire you to look further, visit a gallery, or start searching for the details of a favorite or popular painting, sketch, or woodcut.
Here’s a quick reference list of all the blog posts in the series:
Fort Fisher Watercolors of John W. Grattan (Chatelain)
Veterans in the Fields (Bierle)
Civil War Art: From the ECW Blog Archives
Eben E. Smith — Sequel of Amputation (Bierle)
Antietam by James Hope (Pawlak)
Robert Knox Sneden, Artist (Crenshaw)
Two 10th Maine Infantry officers drew wartime art (Swartz and Picerno)
“A Moment of Decision” (Bierle)
“The Graphic War” with Sal Cilella (Mackowski)
Question of the Week: 11/6-11/12/23
Marine Artist of the Civil War—Julian O. Davidson (Hughes)
Drummer Boys (Bierle)
For those of you who have seen the movie “Gettysburg” and are also familiar with Winslow Homer’s Civil War oil paintings, I refer you to a scene that I believe that Ron Maxwell, the director of the movie, employed. Ron Maxwell must have been familiar with Homer’s oil painting of “Prisoners From the Front.” To make the reference, you must look up the painting of “Prisoners From the Front.” ( see reference at end).
Remember the scene when Chamberlain’s brother Thomas had three Confederate soldiers brought before him and he started questioning them. It’s as if Maxwell lifted the three soldiers and Thomas and the guard directly from the painting and put them in the scene. This is so beautifully done and is seamless in the thread of the movie. One form of art paying tribute to another: painting, a traditional form of art merged seamless with a modern form of art, film. Thanks for bringing up art in the Civil War in this blog. Thank you from an art educator and history lover for running this series! To see the “painting”vs. the screen shot that it was based on go to https://domerindc.wordpress.com