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Details
LEE, Robert E. (1807-1870), General, Confederate Army. VANNERSON, James, photographer. Oval salt print photograph signed ("R E Lee"), showing Lee in full Confederate uniform, taken in Richmond, Virginia, in February 1864, "Photographed by J. Vannerson, 77 Main Street, Richmond, Va." (imprint along bottom edges of oval), n.d.
Image: 7¼ x 5½ in. Mount: 9 7/8 x 8 in.), even age-toning, the mount with a chipped corner, but the image very strong. Dark signature in lower blank portion. Professionally double-matted and in a fine hardwood frame.
LEE IN EARLY 1864: THE FINEST OF THE HISTORIC VANNERSON "BLOCKADE" PORTRAITS, BOLDLY SIGNED
A famous image of the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, taken about two months before Ulysses S. Grant opened the inexorable 1864 campaigns with a powerful assault south into the Wilderness. The photographer, Vannerson, was the pre-eminent portrait photographer of the antebellum and mid-war South. Lee agreed to this sitting, in uniform, in order that a young sculptor, Edward V. Valentine, then working in Europe, could use the images to make a sculpture of Lee, intended for sale at a Confederate benefit in England. For the occasion, Lee "put himself in fullest dress, with every evidence of care as to his appearance." In the three portraits taken at that sitting, "we are aware of a courtly formality...." (Meredith, Face of Robert E. Lee, p.40.). Four images were supposedly taken, but only three are known to survive. All are rare, especially when signed.
The striking Vannerson portraits were widely circulated, and soon took form as lithographs, and engravings. As Meredith points out, this particular Vannersopn portrait "has perhaps been the dominant influence on the scores of artists who have sought to recreate Robert E. Lee..." (Meredith, p.44). No signed copy of this seminal image was part of the very extensive Lee portraits in the Joseph Laico Collection, sold Christie's, 12 May 1999. A MAGNIFICENT EXAMPLE OF A RARE LARGE FORMAT PORTRAIT.
Image: 7¼ x 5½ in. Mount: 9 7/8 x 8 in.), even age-toning, the mount with a chipped corner, but the image very strong. Dark signature in lower blank portion. Professionally double-matted and in a fine hardwood frame.
LEE IN EARLY 1864: THE FINEST OF THE HISTORIC VANNERSON "BLOCKADE" PORTRAITS, BOLDLY SIGNED
A famous image of the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, taken about two months before Ulysses S. Grant opened the inexorable 1864 campaigns with a powerful assault south into the Wilderness. The photographer, Vannerson, was the pre-eminent portrait photographer of the antebellum and mid-war South. Lee agreed to this sitting, in uniform, in order that a young sculptor, Edward V. Valentine, then working in Europe, could use the images to make a sculpture of Lee, intended for sale at a Confederate benefit in England. For the occasion, Lee "put himself in fullest dress, with every evidence of care as to his appearance." In the three portraits taken at that sitting, "we are aware of a courtly formality...." (Meredith, Face of Robert E. Lee, p.40.). Four images were supposedly taken, but only three are known to survive. All are rare, especially when signed.
The striking Vannerson portraits were widely circulated, and soon took form as lithographs, and engravings. As Meredith points out, this particular Vannersopn portrait "has perhaps been the dominant influence on the scores of artists who have sought to recreate Robert E. Lee..." (Meredith, p.44). No signed copy of this seminal image was part of the very extensive Lee portraits in the Joseph Laico Collection, sold Christie's, 12 May 1999. A MAGNIFICENT EXAMPLE OF A RARE LARGE FORMAT PORTRAIT.