Feb 04, 2016 - Sale 2404

Sale 2404 - Lot 103

Price Realized: $ 6,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
THE ORIGINAL COLLAGE (CIVIL WAR.) Maquette of Brady studio portraits used for the composite photograph "Army of Potomac." 7 albumen photographs, each 3 x 1 3/4 inches, each mounted on scallop-edged white card with ink captions, which are in turn mounted on a 15 x 12 dark board; minimal wear. Np, late 1864

Additional Details

Albumen portraits of Grant, Meade, and other Union leaders are here artfully arranged and captioned in collage form for the popular war-era composite photograph. The Library of Congress holds the original glass plate for this composite (call number LC-B813-2382 A-1). From this negative, cartes-de-visite were published by E. & H.T. Anthony, the firm which had possession of many of Brady's negatives during and after the war.
The seven generals are General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant at center, and (clockwise from top) Major General George G. Meade commanding the Army of the Potomac; Brigadier General Winfield Scott Hancock, commander of the II Corps; Major General Andrew A. Humphreys, then serving as Meade's chief of staff; Major General Horatio G. Wright, commander of the VI Corps; Major General Gouverneur K. Warren, commander of the V Corps; and Brigadier General John G. Parke, commander of the IX Corps. These seven were among the senior leaders of the Army of the Potomac only from August 1864 (when Parke took command of IX Corps) to November 1864 (when Hancock relinquished his field command). Provenance: Christie's sale of the Joseph Laico Civil War collection, 12 May 1999, lot 143.