Prang's Civil War Pictures: The Complete Battle Chromos of Louis Prang (The North's Civil War) - Hardcover

Holzer, Harold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823221180 ISBN 13: 9780823221189

Publisher: Fordham University Press, 2001

Synopsis

During the 1880s, a German-born, Boston-based picture publisher successfully commissioned the most ambitious series of battle prints ever published. Louis Prang, best known as the "father of the Christmas card," hired noted military and marine artists to create original scenes of combat, and then reproduced their works in a wildly popular portfolio of chromolithographs. He called the set Prang's War Pictures.

They were offered to an eager public accompanied by "descriptive texts" that told the story of each engagement through eyewitness recollection by the heroes of each action. The set proved both appealing and influential, selling vigorously in various editions for a generation, and elevating the stature of military illustration in America. For 20 years, Civil War prints for the masses had featured uninspired, one-dimensional views of armies in hand-to-hand combat.Prang and his artists demonstrated genuine skill and imaginative perspective. They showed both real carnage and important technological advances, revealing both the broad sweep of panoramic battlefields and the intimate action of individual combatants.

These famously sepia-toned chromos went on to become familiar illustrations in books and magazines-often offered as definitive examples of Civil War art. But until now, the complete set of 18 chromos has never been collected in a single volume. And the original "Descriptive Texts" first offered Prang's customers as marketing brochures to boost sales-a priceless historical archive in and of themselves-have never been published since, anywhere.Holzer reunites pictures and texts in an authoritative, milestone volume orchestrating prints and descriptions that resurrect Prang's original conception of battle art for the masses for a new generation.

The book also features reproductions of the original works of art that inspired the prints, created on commission by battle painter Thure de Thulstrup and naval specialist Julian Oliver Davidson-now housed in art collections around the country-but seldom seen since they were commissioned by Prang as models for his ambitious chromolithographs.

This long-needed complete Prang portfolio will undoubtedly become an essential collectible for Civil War aficionados in the country, as well as for libraries and university collections increasingly aware of the importance of art and iconography in defining the Civil War experience and the impact of Civil War memory.

About this title

About the Author

Harold Holzer is Roger Hertog Fellow at the New-York Historical Society and one of the nation’s leading authorities on Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. He is chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation and has written, co-written, or edited forty-seven books, most recently Lincoln and the Power of the Press.

Review

Prang's Civil War Pictures proves yet again that the editor is the foremost expert on the iconography of America's Middle Period. Holzer is witty and perceptive when he shares with us the talent of Louis Prang whose Civil War 'pictures' made him a household name. Beautifully illustrated, this book will captivate anyone interested in the Civil War or nineteenth century art. (―Chief Justice Frank J. Williams Chair, The Lincoln Forum)

This splendid volume should stand as the definitive treatment of Prang and his work. (―Gary W. Gallagher University of Virginia)

Editor Holzer is author of 19 books and some 300 articles about the art and political culture of the Civil War era. Although not a specialist in the work of Prang, Holzer is probably the best person to write this book on the series of Civil War battle chromolithographs that Prang published in the 1880s. In addition to knowing the period inside out, Holzer has the ability to bring the period to life for today's readers. He has demonstrated this over and over again, especially as a public speaker on Abraham Lincoln and in his position as director of communications at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In this book, Holzer does not disappoint. He makes the reader very curious as to why chromos of Civil War battles were so popular in American homes in the 1880s, and then offers a well-researched, yet lively, explanation for the phenomenon. This book is important, both as a worthy scholarly addendum to Katherine Morrison McClinton's ground-breaking The Chromolithographs of Louis Prang (CH, May'74), and as a vehicle for creating more public interest in the almost forgotten art of chromolithography. Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. (―Choice)

About this edition

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0823221180
• ISBN 13: 9780823221189
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 184