Now THAT would make an interesting painting!

Vicki Betts

But other than I assume you like this print? As for Kunstler’s failure to properly capture gazing soldiers, at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. In fact, for a few moments I actually felt dizzy trying to figure out what was going on.

Toby,

“…maybe I better stop right there” also has a sexual connotation. If you are going to take the plunge there is no telling where it stops.

Art of this sort makes me shudder.

If it were the work of a talented ninth-grader I’d praise the ambitious scope of the work, a mythic setting with heroic figures, as well as a high school teacher’s appreciation of this art student going “across the curriculum” to embrace an historical theme.

For this talented ninth grader I’d then provide some directed critique especially regarding the flawed perspective (simple mechanics, really), as well as the disturbing illusion created by the group of soldiers on the viewer’s left, who seem to “float” slightly above the surface of the canvas. I’d ask the student to trace vanishing points as well as perspective lines to discover that so few of the gazing eyes are actually finding their targets. I’d ask if this bright student has had any opportunities to see and sketch live horses which are quite unlike those lampwork glass figurines that appear in the painting. I’d pose a similar question, with great delicacy, regarding the students familiarity with actual women, as organic forms rather than spun-sugar pieces of confectionary. I’d also question the garish aquamarine of the Candy-Land like river complete with large clusters of rock candy in the foreground. The near spastic brushwork of the foliage on the far left; I’d leave that discussion for another day.

That’s the conversation I’d have if this were merely the work of a promising ninth-grader.

Otherwise, yikes!

Mannie

Yes, I need to pick up the book. I’m in the process of catching-up on my readings. I’m about to dive into Plain Folk in a Rich Man’s War: Class and Dissent in Confederate Georgia (David Williams, Teresa Crisp Williams, and David Carlson). Ultimately, before the year is out, I’d like to collect a number of books that focus on dissent.

The problem with the image of the woman stitching the Confederate flag is that it is much too static. Women may have stitched them, but as an emblematic image it overlooks the challenges that most women faced during the war and presents them as objects that work to satisfy our own need to remember the past in a certain way.

You definitely need to read the article, though I am looking forward to the book, which is titled, _Confederate Crucible: The Political Transformation of the Civil War South_ and is to be published by Harvard. It’s definitely not an easy argument to make given that these women tended not to keep diaries or other records. That said, what is available seems to have been written in response to the continued encroachments of the Confederate government. Their words directly reflect their discontent and form part of the broader story of the steps they took to address these concerns. Overall, it’s a pretty good collection of essays if you decide to purchase it.

Looks like I need to read McCurry’s essay.

The image of the bread riot also brings to mind another that I saw this past year, showing a women scorning her husband (a Confederate soldier) for returning home, a deserter. I’ve often seen it written where some Southern women (those who were secesh-leaning, of course) were referred to as worse than some Southern men (in regard to secession spirit). I’ve also seen letters that back-up that thought. Of course, as opposed to the clouded understanding of some that the “idyllic Southern woman” sat in front of a window stitching a Confederate flag (and that said image was representative of the overall spirit of Southern women), Southern women had varying impact on the men and it most certainly wasn’t always for the “Cause.” In fact, it appears that McCurry’s piece urges us to look more carefully at the instances in which Southern women voiced their distrust of the “Cause.” This is the reality of the CW era society in the South.

Also, noting the effort made by women to organize resistance to the Confederate war effort, I have seen where some Confederate soldiers also took measures and deserted to the home county (the government having “failed” them in reassuring the safety of the families at home) to hide in the hills and hollows to act whenever necessary… no matter the “enemy.” The “enemy” was not always the Union soldier, however, and was sometimes other Confederate soldiers. I know of an incident in Page County where a women was killed by a drunk N.C. Confederate. The woman killed was actually a distant cousin of mine.

Many realized that being in the Confederate army was not in the best interests of their wives and children at home, and being close to home made it easier to desert and tend to that which was more important. I think the book “More Damning than Slaughter” covers this rather well.

Robert @ Cenantua’s Blog

You may be right that we want our Civil War wrapped in mythology rather than history, but I suspect that the attraction to these prints extends way beyond “The Lost Cause/Southern Heritage/neo-Confederate segment of American society.”

Thanks for taking the time to fill us in with some of the background. I will have to take a look at Buck’s diary. I guess the incident with Lucy must be understood as part of Lee’s penchant for flirting with the young ladies. Now that’s something I would like to see Kunstler take on as a subject. I won’t hold my breadth. Here is a link to Buck’s diary at Google Books. I’m not sure how much of it is available: http://books.google.com/books?id=gPWqqWR9cooC&dq=%22shadows+on+my+heart%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=xezW1wwKR7&sig=-CY6fD7LUIgAx-ToNPsGyUeN3yw&hl=en&ei=4LI_SqqrHsOxtwfPpOCgBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1

Your broader point is important since it points to a tendency to remove these civilian scenes (especially those involving women) entirely from any reminder of war. We are left with snapshots of peaceful plantations and other idyllic scenes from our antebellum imagination.

I assume that Kunstler’s painting is depicting an interview that occurred on July 22, 1863, in Front Royal, Virginia. Lee stopped at Bel Air, an opulent mansion owned by William Buck. Two of Buck’s daughters, Lucy and Nellie, came out gushing when they saw Lee ride up, and after playing piano for him, they asked for his autograph. All of this is described in detail in Lucy Buck’s diary, now published as, “Shadows on My Heart.”

Now, what gets me about Kunstler’s depiction of the Buck sisters is not their apparent fawning over General Lee (which did happen according to Lucy’s own admission), but Kunstler’s intent to soften this moment in history. The previous evening, James Longstreet’s men had raided Bel Air for supplies, taking what they pleased. They even insulted the sisters for not keeping enough slaves to service the farm. (The Bucks’ slaves had run away in January.) Thousands of wounded men–casualties from the recent Battle of Gettysburg–lay strewn about the town of Front Royal. Lee’s men were about to fight another battle at Wapping Heights, one that could have severed them from their supply base at Culpeper. Nothing of this atmosphere of desperation–which would have permeated the moment–is depicted in this scene. The Bucks were not entirely happy with Lee’s men, and I have always guessed that Lee stopped by Bel Air simply to assuage the anger of the Bucks for the inconveniences placed upon them by his suffering army. (Incidentally, the daughters had wanted Longstreet to come by and sign autographs, but he refused.)

Finally, the incident was creepier than Kunstler depicts. During Lee’s brief stay at Bel Air, Lucy took Lee into the house and offered him a seat on a wide divan. As she commenced to sit elsewhere, at a respectful distance, Lee interjected, “No, not there, but here close to me.” This command surprised Lucy (then twenty-years-old), for she could hardly imagine that the fifty-six-year-old general would be at all interested in her. Lucy snuggled next Lee, and he tried to flirt with her, attempting to hook up Lucy and her sister with some of his young aides, and he made comments such as, “ [don't] let any of those fine young Yankee officers carry you off.” Lucy was obviously star-struck and she wrote, “Dear old General! how I’ve always admired and loved him[.] . . . What an air of dignity about his every moment.” But, she also admitted that Lee had embarrassed her and her sister and whole interview had passed uncomfortably.

Now, I’m not a professional artist, but I wonder at times when modern day Civil War painters choose subjects with the unintended (or perhaps intentional) purpose of misinterpreting the historic moment depicted. Lee’s encounter with the Buck sisters at Bel Air was a strange moment for him at best, not an adorable little interview as the peaceful scene implies.