CIVIL WAR ART

A live, online teacher professional development workshop

Image Syllabus

Part One

Old Ideals, New Technologies

Winslow Homer, “War for the Union—Bayonet Charge,”Harper’s Weekly, July 12, 1862

Discussion Questions

How likely was it that Homer witnessed such a battle?

How did he design the scene to bolster home front morale?

How did his image reflect old tactics and old ideals of battle?

Winslow Homer, “War for the Union—Bayonet Charge,”Harper’s Weekly, July 12, 1862

Winslow Homer, Defiance: Inviting a Shot Before Petersburg

Oil on panel, 1864

Discussion Questions

How does this portrayal of battle differ from that in Homer’s “Bayonet Charge”?

How is the battlefield and Homer’s image of it organized around the new technology of long-range weaponry?

Winslow Homer, Defiance: Inviting a Shot before PetersburgOil on panel, 1864

Winslow Homer, “A Sharp-shooter on Picket Duty”Harper’s Weekly, November 15, 1862

Discussion Question

How does this image make sense of long-distance sharpshooting, a practice Homer would later call “as near as murder as anything I ever could think of in connection with the army”?

Winslow Homer, “A Sharp-shooter on Picket DutyHarper’s Weekly, November 15, 1862

John Rogers, SharpshootersPlaster, 1862

Discussion Questions

Is Rogers’ plaster group a celebration or a critique of the sharpshooter’s craft?

Given that he made it for display in middle-class homes, was it wise for him to undertake this subject?

John Rogers, Sharpshooters, (front) plaster, 1862

John Rogers, Sharpshooters, (back) plaster,1862

Part Two

Battlefield Photography:“Bodies in Our Dooryards”

Alexander GardnerView in the Field, on the west side of Hagerstown road,

after the Battle of AntietamSeptember, 1862

Discussion Questions

The Antietam photographs were the first images of corpses taken in the immediate aftermath of battle.

Why were these photographs so shocking?

How did they upset the conventions of heroic death and proper care for he dead?

Alexander Gardner, View in the Field, on the west side of Hagerstown road, after the Battle of Antietam, September, 1862

Alexander GardnerA Contrast: Federal buried, Confederate unburied, where they fell, on Battlefield of Antietam

September, 1862.

Discussion Question

Why is this contrast significant?

Alexander Gardner, A Contrast: Federal buried, Confederate unburied, where they fell, on Battlefield of

Antietam, September, 1862

James F. GibsonHome of a Rebel Sharpshooter

July 1863

Discussion Questions

The photographer moved the body and arranged the props before taking the photo. Why?

What does this tell us about “documentary” photography?

James F. Gibson, Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, July 1863

John ReekieA Burial Party, Cold Springs Harbor, Virginia

April, 1865

Discussion Questions

Who is being buried?

Who is doing the burying?

What are the ironies of this image?

John Reekie, A Burial Party, Cold Springs Harbor, VirginiaApril, 1865

Part Three

Liberation: Slaves, Contraband, and Freedman

John Rogers

Camp Life, or Making Friends with the Cook1862

Discussion Questions

How are the two men joined in this narrative?

How are they separated from one another?

Is this comic, or serious, or both?

John RogersCamp Life, or Making Friends with the Cook1862

John Quinicy Adams WardThe Freedman

1863

Discussion Questions

How does Ward’s protagonist differ from Rogers’ protagonist in Camp Life?

How doesit feel to take the pose of the Freedman?

What future prospects does his situation suggest?

John Quinicy Adams WardThe Freedman Bronze, 1863

“A Typical Negro,” Harper’s Weekly, July 4, 1863

Discussion Questions

How is the before and after contrast constructed, and what is it supposed to tell us?

Why is the scarred back so prominent?

How does it serve as an icon of the Union cause?

GORDON AS HE ENTERED OUR LINES. GORDON UNDER

MEDICAL INSPECTION.

GORDON IN HIS UNIFORM AS A U. S. SOLDIER.

“A Typical Negro,” Harper’s Weekly, July 4, 1863

Winslow HomerNear Andersonville (At the Cabin Door)

Oil on canvas, 1865-66

Discussion Questions

How does Homer construct the image to call into question the issues of loyalty and citizenship?

Who are the rightful inhabitants, and who are the occupiers?

Who belongs and who does not?

How does Homer make the point of view problematic?

Winslow HomerNear Andersonville (At the Cabin Door), 1865-66Oil on canvas

Part Four

Aftermath

Winslow HomerPrisoners from the Front

Oil on canvas1866

Discussion Questions

How does this painting stereotype the two sides in the War?

How does this connect, or not, with the liberation narrative of Part Three?

Winslow Homer, Prisoners from the Front, oil on canvas, 1866

Thomas Nast“Patience on a Monument

Harper’s Weekly, October 10, 1868

Discussion Questions

How and why does Nast parody a typical public monument?

What does this image say about the white South’s perversion of civic values?

Thomas Nast,“Patience on a Monument,”Harper’s Weekly,October 10, 1868

Thomas Ball,Freedmen’s Memorial to Abraham Lincoln,

1876

Discussion Questions

Compare this real monument with Thomas Nast’s imaginary one.

What is the slave figure doing, and why?

Ultimately, how is Ball’s monument more fictional than Nast’s?

Thomas Ball,Freedmen’s Memorial toAbraham Lincoln,1876

Elizabeth KeckleyLiberty Quilt

1860s

Discussion Question

How does this quilt function as an alternative memorial to the War?

Elizabeth Keckley, Liberty Quilt, 1860sFor close-up, visit http://dept.kent.edu/museum/collection/keckley.htm