Edwin Forbes

Louisiana State University Press has reprinted Edwin Forbes' etchings, recollections and vignettes about his time as a war artist with the Army of the Potomac from 1862 to 1864. Eighty two page vignettes about aspects of soldiering (such as "the moving column", "army bread", "traffic between the lines") serve as introductions to the large full-page etchings. Forbes is an excellent painter of horseflesh and has a keen eye for the minutiae of soldier life. He is at his best in static compositions that he has personally observed. The worst etchings thus are the (few) depictions of charging Confederates that do a disservice to his other work. His best works are not his etchings but his pencil drawings, a selection of which one can freely admire on the Library of Congress website.… (més)