Civil War Battle Scene, James A. Michener Art Museum

Civil War Battle Scene, 1887 
(Battery, Forward!; Bringing Up the Battery; Artillery to the Front)
o/c, 19 ¼ x 29 ½ inches

Signed and dated, ll: " W. T. Trego 1887"
Labels on the frame reference T. A. Wilmurt & Son, NYC, and J. H. Lewis & Son, NYC.
James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown,  PA          
                                                                                                                                         

Provenance: Purchased from the artist by Thomas B. Clarke, in 1887. (H. Barbara Weinberg, “Thomas B. Clarke: Foremost Patron of American Art from 1872 to 1899,” American Art Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1 (May, 1976), pp. 52-83.); Sold in 1899 as “Battery Forward!” with a catalog description that makes it clear that it is the same painting called “Bringing Up the Battery” exhibited in 1891 (see below). The date is incorrectly given as 1885. (Catalog of the Art Collection of Thomas B. Clarke, New York, to be sold at absolute public sale, 1899, #325.) Purchased from Clarke in 1899 for $425 by Franklin Rockefeller of Ohio (Florence N. Levy, ed., American Art Annual, New York, 1899, p. 63); There is a gap in the chain of owners until it reaches the collection of Louis Halloway of Middletown, CT, by 1979; From Halloway it passed through Stonington Fine Arts of Stonington, CT, and Butler Fine Art of New Canaan, CT, before entering the collection of a private individual from whom the Michener Museum purchased the work in 1999.

Exhibitions: Loaned by Clarke, as “Bringing Up the Battery,” for the inaugural exhibit of the Art Institute of Chicago in November, 1887. (Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Paintings Exhibited by the Art Institute of Chicago at the Opening of the New Art Museum, November 19, 1887, p. 13); Exhibited by Clarke at PAFA in 1891 as “Bringing Up the Battery,” #174. This listing, however, erroneously gives the date as 1885. (Catalog of the Thomas B. Clarke Collection of American Pictures, Philadelphia, 1891, p. 106.); Exhibited by Clarke in New York City as “Battery, Forward” in 1894. (“Art for Hot Weather” NYT, 1 July 1894, p.21)

Reproductions: As “Artillery to the Front,” it appeared on the cover of Civil War Times Illustrated, Vol. XVIII, no. 3, (June, 1979), courtesy of Louis Halloway.

Condition: The painting was conserved upon it's arrival at the Michener Museum and is in excellent condition.

 

The two Thomas B. Clarke catalogs cited above give the following description of the work, making it clear that all four titles noted above refer to the same work: “The Battery is advancing to the front under heavy fire from the enemy. One soldier, shot in his saddle, reels under the stroke, while a comrade seizes the bridle his hands can no longer control, in order to guide his charger. The hurry, dust, and heat of battle are rendered with a spirited brush.” At the time of its exhibition in New York in 1894, a critic commented that “…the men and horses are faithful if unbeautiful portraits of Pennsylvania artillery.” (NYT, 1 July 1894. p. 21)