Civil War Battle

1861 or after

A battle scene set on a grassy field is painted with vivid, saturated tones of green, bright blue, brown, pearl white, and shades of gray and blue in this nearly square composition. The men closest to us wear uniforms of black jackets, dark blue pants, and flat-topped, brimmed caps. At the center, a man flails backward on a rearing chestnut-brown horse. A uniformed man with a goatee and wearing a high-crowned hat with a gray feather holds the reins of the rearing horse, as a white horse shies just beyond his shoulder. Another brown horse lies on the ground, tongue out, with a man draped over its saddle nearby. In the near distance, two men help an injured solider. Closer to us, a man reaches for some bushes and another lies on the ground, one arm raised. A screen of white smoke obscures the view beyond the rearing horse, and a black form at the center of orange and red streaks could represent an explosive. Another soldier on a brown horse raises one hand just to the right of the others, and three lines of troops press forward to the right following an American flag with seventeen visible stars and the thirteen red and white stripes held aloft by a bearer in the front row. Two men lie dead on the ground here, and another man is carried away on a stretcher. More troops stand in rows or man cannons in the background. A line of soldiers wearing brown and a mounted officer wearing a gray uniform advance from the left in the background. These troops hold flags with two red stripes flanking a single white stripe, and blue fields with seven stars. White clouds kick up in the blue sky above. The scene is painted simply in an almost cartoonish style.

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Recorded as from New York. Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., in 1942.[1] Acquired in 1955 by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1959.
[1] According to Jean Lipman, American Primitive Painting, (London/New York/Toronto, 1942), caption to fig. 70.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1957

  • American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part II, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1957, no. 93.

1958

  • American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Springfield Art Museum, Missouri, 1958, no cat.

1962

  • Exhibition of Early American Art, Academy of the Arts, Talbot County Historical Society, Easton, Maryland, 1962, no. 28.

1972

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador Strauz-Hupe, U.S. Embassy residence, Brussels, Belgium, 1972-1977.

1977

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador Galbraith, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 1977-1983.

1983

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, U.S. Embassy residence, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1983-1987.

1988

  • A Little Bestiary: Naive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, 1988, no catalogue.

1993

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 1993-1994.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia, 1993.

1994

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York, 1994.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Louisiana Arts and Science Center, Baton Rouge, 1994-1995.

1995

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), McKissick Museum, Columbia, South Carolina, 1995.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Boise Art Museum, Idaho, 1995.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), St. John's Museum of Art, Wilmington, North Carolina, 1995-1996.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Pensacola Museum of Art, Florida, 1995.

1996

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainseville, 1996-1997.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1996.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California, 1996.

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1996.

1997

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, 1997.

1998

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art (NGA National Lending Service exhibition), Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1998.

Bibliography

1942

  • Lipman, Jean. American Primitive Painting. London / New York/ Toronto, 1942: fig. 70, as Battle of Gettysburg.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 132, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 270, repro.

1986

  • Lipman, Jean, et al. Young America. New York, 1986: color pl. 7.18.

1992

  • Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 456-458, repro. 457.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 396, repro.

1998

  • Virginia Cavalcade, Richmond, Virginia, 1998, p. 14-15, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20188481

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