LIFE STUDIES OF THE GREAT ARMY.

Edwin Forbes was one of the most notable illustrators of the American Civil War. From 1862 on he was a correspondent for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, producing illustrations to accompany war news. During most of this period he accompanied the Army of the Potomac on its campaigns in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Although Forbes portrays battle scenes, he was much more interested in depicting the everyday life of the private soldier in camp and on the march. Typically, his scenes include such topics as "Washing Day," the camp cook, vendors of supplies to soldiers, picket duty, and other incidents of camp life. A number of other illustrations show life on the march, fording streams, the supply train, and the like. More than a few feature Black soldiers and aides, and the entire series ends with a plate titled "Sanctuary," depicting an African-American family celebrating the arrival of the Union Army. All of the plates are etchings, evidently executed by Forbes himself from his original drawings (which were mainly pen and ink wash). The forty plates contain fifty-nine scenes, since some plates have two or three scenes, and one has five. A table of contents appears on the inside of the front board, while each plate has a more lengthy textual gloss as well. The front board proclaims that the publication was sold "to subscribers only." One of those subscribers was William T. Sherman, who was so impressed by this work that he purchased the artist's first set of proofs to decorate his office in Washington. A major graphic record of the Civil War, by one of its most notable recorders. "Artists associated lithography with popular art; it suggested patriotism, sentimentalism, and humor, but not serious artistic purpose. By mastering the finer art of etching, Forbes was able to lend his sketches an artistic dignity usually reserved only for painting.The masterpiece of Forbes's portfolio was Through the Wilderness [plate 3], a study in light and dark, thought not a night scene or one lit by firelight. Here the dense shadows of the treacherously wooded Wilderness of northern Virginia caused the light and shadows. No other artwork depicting the Civil War in any medium offered a more vivid portrayal of mud, as the wheels of Forbes's cannon and limber appear almost fused with the earth. Forbes, famed as an animal painter before the war, appreciated the toiling horses and offered them sympathy in the sadly deflated image of the exhausted creature lying in the shadow of death at the lower left" - THE UNION IMAGE. Neely & Holzer, THE UNION IMAGE, pp.77-81. Loose plates in original gilt cloth portfolio, rebacked in later buckram. Boards scuffed and heavily soiled. Some occasional chipping, closed tears, or faint dampstains to margins of plates, dampstain extending to edge of image in plates 15 through 21. A good set in all, generally bright and unfoxed. In a cloth clamshell case.…