Different and had very different background stories. Return of the 69th irish regiment, a caricature of lincoln writing the emancipation proclamation, the lincoln family by carpenter, victor nailings painting, and up soda for, and an episode of war, and some prison art. Lets look at the relationship between more and art, harold. Does war stimulate arts in america, and did art change the romantic image of war . Harold i think both. Good evening, thanks for having me back. Emphasis ofGreat American painting to the civil war was probably landscape painting. Portrait caricatures took on a martial air with all the military heroes who were pretrade. Many to the field, like the soldier artists, artists like Winslow Homer went to the field to do sketches for the weekly newspapers and evolved into very successful artists. In terms of what it did to landscaping, it totally revolutionized the romantic attitude artists had toward this socalled american eden, the pristine landscape of the americas. The landscape was ravaged by gunfire and the land was stained by blood. Changed the way this Great American art form was recorded during and after the war. The war kept artists busy for many years after the war, on commissions from military lodges, armories, and the united daughters of the confederacy and all these groups are kept clamoring for pictures and statues. Valerie statues, as we know. Lets start with our first that isr painting, and return of the 69th irish regiment. It was painted in 1862. You called this huge painting, a masterpieceet, of 19th century public relations. Why . Heroes of made great a military unit that fought ,retty well, but in the end unsuccessfully. And all the union troops of the battle of bull run. This was important for morale because it was the irish brigade of new york, a unit that the elite later named the fighters of the 69th. Very important to the forn war effort germanamericans and irishamericans who had different political points of view were recruited and both raised their own regiments. Very early inoff the work, in the spring of 1861, down to virginia, established itself in arlington heights, where they built fortifications for washington. It was very irish. Commander had a minister, a catholic priest, strangle holy water on the first canon. They marched on very proudly onto war. Corker was irish born, a number of the finian brotherhood. Valerie we have a detail of corker. Harold it will not be him, so we should not get to it yet. Valerie oh, ok. [laughter] thisd i should point out, fellow was not corcoran. At the battle of bull run at south, where our irish regiment fought very bravely, he was captured by the confederates and years. Prison for 40 when he was finally released, lincoln gave him and other officers who had been imprisoned a dinner in the white house. He was there for a whole year in prison. Harold he was an exception. Back, at least this unit, came back to battery park, and this is what they seemed to think. The fellow waving his hat was corcorans successor. He is getting a heroes welcome. These portraits were painted of individually recognized people in the irishamerican community. 69th saw combat in the battle of bull run in 1861 as part of a brigade that was commanded by william t sherman. What happened to them there . Valerie they did ok harold they did ok. They did well, they were brave. But the battle of bull run was won by the union in the morning. The problem was the afternoon came after the morning and the confederates charged back and won the day. So it was a huge embarrassment, especially when these guys did no more than participated in what ended up being a real disaster. Valerie but they did receive quite an unexpected welcome when they arrived a week later. What sort of things does louis lange depicted in the painting . Harold you can see the crowd surging. His is my favorite detail this is an image of a newsboy engraving the lithographs of colonel corcoran, who was suffering in a prison camp. So he was a particular hero. But they came back and the brigade was smart enough and wealthy enough to commission this humongous painting. It wasplayed intended for their armory. After this scene, they all marched to the street and striked their arms. It had a great display at the gallery on 9th avenue. Rave reviews from the critics. Valerie but it ultimately became a bit of an artistic curiosity. Why . Harold two years after this scene, the city erupted in draft riots, as we discussed in an earlier program, and so many irish and irishamericans participated that it became politically incorrect to celebrate the early irishamerican contributions to the union war effort. Deteriorated. Thank goodness louis lange donated it to the Historical Society 25 years after this scene. Thing is when it was finally discovered in a storage, it was restored magnificently in time for exhibition in the civil of thefor the exhibition civil war in 50 objects. Came together to make one gorgeous unit. You can come see it when we reopen. Lets move to our next painting object, and that is the lincoln family in 1861 by Francis Mcnutt carpenter. Blackandwhite, so it had a photographic quality to it, even though it is oil and canvas. But there were no photographs of the lincoln family altogether. Why . Know, we really dont but Mary Linkedin mary lincoln did not like to be photographed with her husband. Shorter and did not like the comparison between them. Valerie she was a little bit fatter, too. [laughter] harold not in this picture, and i will explain that. This is a rift on the famous photograph. As you say, this was painted in blackandwhite for a very tople reason, because it was serve as a model for popular print. Carpenter did not bother to add color. Valerie it is interesting because there is such Public Interest these days and in the last century of artistic depictions of the first family, but not in this time and place. Thing aftermore the his assassination. But in any case, that is where this painting comes in. Tell us about this and the artist. Valerie harold carpenter was from upstate new york. He had a gallery in new york city. He decided he wanted to paint the First Reading of the emancipation proclamation before the cabinet, and he got letters of introduction, he went to the white house. Lincoln liked him. He let him work there for six months. But while he was there, he made sketches of the family and he commissioned the famous photograph of a lincoln and taft looking at this photograph album that looked like a bible, and no one ever corrected that impression. In 1865, lincoln dies. He was still working on the emancipation engraving. The painting is done. And he is pretty well known. So he goes to a new york engraver, jc derby, and he works with another publisher, jc to do a photo of the lincoln family. It cost 500. But he decides to write to mary lincoln, who is his buddy at this point. She suggests all the other adels, a picture of robert, picture of willie, who died in 1862. He is the middle Child Holding the sword. That is why it is very specific the family of 1961. Like carpenter suggested of mary, she suggested one that was painted before she gained weight. She is the one who chose this one that is sort of flattering. It was produced as the popular print of the lincoln family. Not only were they never photographed together, they were seldom together. Robert was at harvard, at harvard law. He wrote he never had 10 minutes alone with his father during the entire war. Willie died 11 months into the presidency. And mary said she was fortunate lincoln came to the bedroom to talk about the events of the day at 11 00 at night. The civil war drove them apart. It did not bring them together. Is to show they were together, to reinsure that lincoln had a happy life. Valerie he never really got the credit he deserved for knitting that picture together. Ultimate indignity it,that he did get 500 for but he claimed he only sold the intellectual property. He still owned the physical campus. However, the studio went bankrupt eventually and sold it to a new yorker named warren crane. Hcarpenter was not happy. Crane allowed him to come to his house and see it, but he did not return it, and it was crane who gave it to the Historical Society years later. Color. He wanted to add that was his ploy to get it back. But he didnt, and he didnt. Valerie [laughter] lets move on to our next artistic work. Of the an etching emancipation proclamation in 1863. We are in the middle of the second year of the civil war. It is getting difficult for the confederacy to circulate artwork of battlefield triumphs. That is for one practical reason. Most of the ablebodied artists were fighting in the war. This is an interesting thing to com contemplate as cultural monuments to the confederacy are being pulled down. There were none that were done at the time of the civil war, no artistic works. About the artist who created this etching. He is also arold hyphenated american. Unlike most of the germans who came to the United States after the revolutions of 1848 failed in europe, he was an archconservative and racist. Not an antislavery man. And theed in baltimore, surroundings and the environment make the man, in a way. He was a dentist by trade and was obviously a very gifted draftsman. And he made these series of antiunion, proconfederate etchings throughout the silver war the civil war and published them secretly with a fake london copyright. Baltimore was occupied quite early in the war by the union, and artists like him, printmakers were shut down who some thighs with the confederacy. So he was operating in total secret. He was not influential at the time, but venomous towards lincoln. Unlike carpenter who provided lincoln, he is writing the emancipation proclamation from an inkwell that is held by satan, and he has his foot on the holy bible to do it. Heads on thevils table, liquor on the cabinet. If you wasnt influenced by the devil, he had to be drunk. There is a picture of john brown, so john brown is the people influence over lincoln. There is a painting of a slave rebellion in haiti. Looks what is over lincoln is a symbol of colombia. Pulled over its head is the kind of scottish lincoln allegedly scottish tam lincoln allegedly were to baltimore. It is an inside joke. This is part of a series called gadgets from the civil war in america. Some of the other images in that series also depict something fake newsy, i think, in a way. Harold cave life in vicksburg. I think we showed that one. Southern women melting church bells to make canon for their holy cause. Also antilincoln stuff. It is interesting you should mention Linkin Lincoln ad volck, because apparently he had a change of heart after lincolns assassination. Harold so he said. He said he ever regretted he was mean to that man. Paint, but histo paintings were of robert e. Lee, and lee morning stonewall jackson. A lincoln painting sense ofed any kind of having regretted what he did. Valerie lets move on to our next image. This is also a large painting, not quite as large as the one of 69. This is called an episode of war, the calvary charge by an artist named victor nelligan. We called it a Hidden Treasure in the book. That is is a pond upon a have to keep apologizing for. Valerie that is cute. [laughter] we dont want to minimize it. Tell us a bit about him and this particular episode of war. Harold he was a very young man, 23 years old when he joined company h of the first new york cavalry. Yes, there were calvary units in new york. A brave young guy. His family were very wealthy shipbuilders. He was mercantile royalty, to be sure. Anded a man into virginia, one day at a place called sangster station, he saw an ofuarded exposed flank general Joe Johnstons confederate army, and he let his cavalry through and created havoc and really pushed them back. Unfortunately in the midst of that is whatnd this is supposed to represent, his hand is not held upright, and that is because the has just been shot through the neck. It is kind of remarkable. It does not diminish the dramatic nature of the canvas, but it was a relatively insecure incident even in its own time. Why was it obscure . Harold this little skirmish was not a major battle. Second of all, there were two major events going on the same day, the merrimack battle and the battle of peerage in the west the battle of peerage in the west. They were more well covered by the media. This could have led to a battle, but johnsons army just waited for another day. As you mentioned when we the family was wealthy. The original title of this painting was much more dramatic. The gallant charge of lieutenant harry hidden. I dont know why they changed it to an episode of the war. It was commissioned by the family and displayed in regiments for years. Even though he is considered i doubt, because this is 1862, he is considered the first Union Cavalry officer to die during the war. I am not sure that is possible, but we will go with it by now. If we could think back to corcoran. Hegot out of prison, recovered, he went back into the hevice, and ignominiously was killed when his horse fell on him. What the battle of bull run could not do the colonel corcoran. Horses. Like a lot of people do. They petrified me. So all power to henry hidden for doing all this. Valerie yes, that is henry hiddens claim to fame, the first Union Cavalry officer killed in a. Sort of like our guy last week. [laughter] he gets it. You do mention this painting has a new light on the harsh realities of the war. What are some of the details that stand out for you . The firstharold images of war were pretty bucolic, even though the landscape is turning red. But this is really handtohand combat, it is swords, bayonets, rifles, confusion. It is trees shorn of leaves. It is not romantic at all. And it is scary. Youve got these foreignborn artists who are really revising the idea of war. So far, i think we have done all except for carpenter, they are all foreignborn artists. America was kind of speaking with a foreign accent at the time anyway. They say 40 of the union army spoke with some kind of a foreign accent, which is remarkable. Valerie it is remarkable. We are down to our last five artworks or artistic impressions of war. A Point Lookout sketch. Atercolor drawings during the four years of the men were taken prisoner. A majority of these were in prison for the duration of the war. For those men that were Strong Enough to endure the starvation and exposure, sickness, and allaround hellish circumstances, we have learned that the creativity helped them survive. Sketches was these one such soldier. Tell us about him. Is i amwhat we know assuming he was foreignborn, but certainly germanamerican in some way. He was a folk artist and a candy maker before the war. They confectionery, he was called. Austrian by dissent, settled in , got up early and saw some action in the first regiment. He survived in the war for some time, but it caught up with him in 1864 and he was captured at at asburg and imprisoned hot and steamy camp on the southern shore of maryland called Point Lookout, where at its peak 20,000 men were capped in were capped in pretty tough were kept in pretty tough circumstances in 23 acres. It was not as crowded as andersonville or l myra, but a pretty tough situation. Prisoners were exchanged at the beginning of the work, but by 18 624, general grant said no more imprisonedecause soldiers hurt the confederate side more than ours because we can always replenish. Ser was gifted. I think he sold some of these developers and are because we have evidence some of them wrote home saying there is a very clever artist here. Captured by a black soldier. What makes this piece remarkable is he shows africanamerican soldiers guarding him, which for a southerner must have been a deep kind of humiliation, which we know is nice retribution. Valerie i think we actually have that in the next slide. It is interesting because he was painted he painted so many artworks and it is such a huge body of work that it was thought of the work of more than one person, but it seems to just be his. At the newyork Historical Society, the Art Collection has a portfolio for watercolors. This is a selection of them. What did they depict in general . There are so many. Harold it depicts africanamericans a guard, selling extras to a prisoner, maybe a potato or an extra ration. Group offt, it shows a ladies who were touring the camp as if it was a tourist attraction, and you have a soldier bare chested, washing his shirt, which is bug invested, and he is saying to the ladies, why is this camp so lousy . Which i think even then had a double meaning. And all had voice boxes minstrel dialect for the africanamericans. Bottom soldier said, the rail is on top now, which is about the summation of everything. The africanamerican guards are in control. Society is turned upside down for him. And he was in prison not only was he in prison until the end of the war, he was in prison until two months after the war. He was not let go. He would not sign the loyalty oath that was required of prisoners to be demobbed and as a result he moved back to richmond, married, became a candy maker again, died young of cancer. But i dont think his mind was expanded by the experience. Artisticcertainly impressions of the experience, his artistic expressions, do indoor, and that is do endure, and that is a wonderful thing. We are ready for our q a. We see a slide of all of our objects together again. Did lincoln ever see the volck etching, and if so, what was his reaction . Harold excellent question. We have no idea. I would suspect not. Although many claims have been made about the popularity of volck in his time, i never believed it. Suchnk there was strict censorship in baltimore and until the end of the war that his works would not have circulated. The newyork Historical Society copy has an early acquisition date, as i recall. He saw plenty of nasty caricatures in his day, but no evidence he saw volcks. Valerie next question, one of our viewers this evening believes he can is on the constitution. Believes lincolns foot is on the constitution. Is that correct . Harold no, it really is the bible. He helps us by saying bible. Valerie good. The answer to this better than i. How many other paintings and prints of the civil war are there in the societys collection . Harold youre putting this on me now . Valerie [laughter] you looked through hundreds. Harold there are certainly dozens and dozens, and we are going to see a nice mix next week, which we were saving for our grant focused penultimate section. Some nice military portraits and some nice prewar paintings, including a lovely painting of an africanamerican man thinking of emancipation. And paintings that are prewar but very important in depicting slavery in washington dc before the war. It is a great collection. And i worked in the storerooms. Valerie exactly. And in the print room alone, there are so many prints to choose from. Triplicate,cate, sometimes of the same image. I would put it in the hundreds. With the print collection and photographs, definitely. Valerie was lincoln mistrustful of the irish 69th since they were democrats . Harold no, certainly not at the beginning. Getorked very hard to ethnic regiments and ethnic generals. Corcoran was the poster boy for irish patriotism. When things began to get a little rough was in terms of his relationship with the irishamerican community and irishamerican voters. It is when the emancipation and thetion was issued rush for the war expanded from just preserving the union to eradicating slavery as well. Not that lincoln had illusions that he had political supporters in the irish community. He knew that the irish were democrats. But in 1861, he did not want a fight against secession to be a republican war only. So he was willing to accept all parties, all ethnicities in service. Harold valerie next question. I know the answer to this one. You said the return of the 69th was exhibited at a gallery on 9th avenue. It was actually 9th street, right . Harold 9th street, excuse me. Valerie that is because the viewer says the far east side of manhattan was a wasteland, which it was. Harold good correction. Thank you. Valerie [laughter] ok. So there was no art gallery over there. I was surprised to hear it was on 9th street, actually. Old gallery. S the i was thinking 9th avenue because of all the chelsea art galleries. Valerie [laughter] exactly. Were painting presentations different in the 19th century . Harold painting presentations . Valerie presentations. I am wondering what that meant. Harold i am not sure what that means. I am sure there were unveilings, if we take it the literal sense. They were big deals. Fanfare attended the unveiling of paintings. Much of the civil war statuary, except for lincoln statuary, was done in 1890 on when there was enough money in the south to collect for those enormous commissions. Wereinting unveilings big. There were a lot of veterans who like having those reminders around, and there were lots of veterans, and even robert e. Lee, who thought there should not be any civil war paintings or art of any kind. Nojust wanted there to be visual record that glorified war, which is interesting when we think about the people who are insisting that his statues indoor. Valerie his statues endure. What if any was the relationship between the iris 69 and the draft writers . Rioters . Aft harold the troops that were drawn from the ranks of the army of the potomac at gettysburg, mostly those who were fairly well rested and had not been engaged in much of the battle, where the ones who were brought back to quell the riots. Checked into the psychology or the response of or those serving in the 69th and their attitudes toward the draft riots. I would suspect they were repelled by them because they were a proud and organized brigade and still fighting for the union. Valerie although as we noted in that episode, many of the draft rioters were irish. So there is that connection, too. Harold they were the irish who did not want to enlist. How did next question, so many paintings from the civil war era survive . Harold well, they were preserved by their original painters. Mostly union leagues, armories, regimental headquarters, clubhouses, the united daughters of the confederacy, the sons of confederate veterans. All of these organizations that champion these momentos and pay for them and held their meetings in front of them. For those of you who have seen the seventh regiment armory, it is built with civil war art and art from other american conflicts. Army and navy clubs all over the country. They were preserved because they were put into institutional settings really early. Not many were done for private collections, and that is why they survived. Valerie and one such painting, which is up there on the right. How accurate is that painting . Are they all real characters that are depicted in it . Harold yeah. My understanding is some portraits were based on survivors and that inevitably the calvary charge is based on descriptions of the survivors that the artist was privy to, collected by the family for his use. There was no photography of the war at that point. There was photography, but it was not action photography. What we said earlier, it was not romanticized, but it was somewhat invented. It was just not a very pleasant glorification. Valerie we are back to lincoln. We are in your wheelhouse. [laughter] did he enjoy art . And were there Many American art museums during his life . Harold there were not many. For artbreakthrough museums was 1870, 5 years after the war, when the metropolitan, the museum of fine arts in boston, and the Art Institute in chicago were all founded. But there were plenty of art galleries. An attendee of art galleries. He was a different judge of art, in critiquing pictures of himself that he was compelled to praise or acknowledge when they were being painted. On the other hand, he let artists and sculptors have their go at him a lot during the war. You think he would be otherwise engaged. He never sat still like George Washington did for gilbert stuart. He had to be painted on the jump, as he put it, while he was working. Usually on his correspondence. But he allowed them and he was very felicitous. He let carpenter hang out in the state dining room for six months painting the emancipation painting and other pictures. I will say, one exception i know first majorthe painting of ulysses s. Grant was brought to the capital for display and lincoln was invited to see it. He had not met grant up to that point. I think part of him felt obliged to pay tribute to him, and another part of him set if i dont go pay homage at this painting, people are going to think i am afraid of grant running for president. So he went up to capitol hill to look at it. That may be the only that i know of that he had a gander at during the civil war. He liked the emancipation proclamation painting. He said it was as good as it could get. Valerie were there any american art museums during lincolns life . Yes. 1870 was a very important year for american art. I dont know what the installations were like during the war. The National Academy of design was operating during the war, and every season they would hang paintings. We know from the records of from the records these included were paintings. Valerie it is a museum and a library. It is very different from the museums as colossal and encyclopedic as museums like the met. Another lincoln question for you. Did lincoln ever visit any of the prisons . Was he concerned about the conditions . Visited cap hospitals. That would be as close as he got to seeing confederates who were under restraint. When he went to visit the wounded at campsites, he would go to the tent that contained the federate he would pass the tent that contained the confederate soldiers. He would recognize them and extend his hand and say, i will shake your hand if you shake mine. Always, they were drawn to him and shook his hand. Visit prison or war camps, to my knowledge, but he did visit hospital camps. We are up to our last question now. Are you aware of any africanamerican artists who depicted this era . Harold yeah, there were some. I hate to go back to lincoln as my fallback, but there was a painter named derek bowser who painted lincoln in other scenes. Yes, there were africanamerican artists that worked. Not many, but lincoln was a particularly evocative and attractive subject, so he did attract at least bowser and others. Leah Matthew Pryor was another artist. And im sure there were bowel artists as well. There were battle artists as well. Harold thank you once again for your wonderful insights and anecdotes. You make such a great partner in this series. And thank you to our audience for being with us and for your support. Good night. Harold good night. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. 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