July 14 & 15, 2020 Fine & Decorative Arts
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2020
Despite being a Virginian, General George Henry Thomas chose to fight for the Union Army during the Civil War and became one of the principal commanders in the Western theater. His bold defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 saved the Union Army from being completely routed, earning him his most famous nickname, "the Rock of Chickamauga." He followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin–Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieved one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, his former student at West Point, at the Battle of Nashville. Though he had a successful record of service in the War, he failed to achieve the historical acclaim of his contemporaries. James Reeve Stuart, well-trained portrait painter and teacher, was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. As a young man he attended University of South Carolina, Harvard and traveled abroad to study art. He enlisted in the Confederacy at the outbreak of the war and served in the Corps of Engineers. After the War, he opened a studio in Augusta, GA, then St. Louis, painting portraits. He then moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1873. Stuart taught at Milwaukee College and the University of Wisconsin, but he remained better known as a portrait painter. Portraits by him are in the collections of the Wisconsin State Historical Museum, the State Capitol of Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin. Relined; areas of inpainting in background.
Item Dimensions: Frame: 31 - 1/4" x 26 - 1/4".
Artist
JAMES REEVE STUART (AMERICAN, 1834 - 1915).
Title
PORTRAIT OF GENERAL GEORGE HENRY THOMAS (1816 - 1870).