Winslow Homer
When the Civil War began in April 1861, Winslow Homer was appointed an “artist correspondent” by Harper’s Weekly. Over the next few years, he witnessed life in the Union army firsthand. Many of the sketches he made served as the basis for illustrations published in Harper‘s, but toward the end of the war Homer also used them for his own paintings.
How do images shape our understanding of war?
While Homer based the majority of his Civil War paintings and illustrations on sketches, this portrait is based on a tintype photograph. Commercial portrait photography flourished during the war, and portraits of soldiers were treasured by the families who might lose their sons and brothers in battle. This portrait shows Albert Kintzing Post in a Union camp. A second lieutenant in the 45th Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry, Post survived the war but died a few years later at the age of twenty-nine while trying to save a boy from drowning.
Gift of Rollin K. and Diane Post
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