A bit of war history: the recruit

Wood, Thomas Waterman (1823-1903)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1866
Height:
71.8 cm  (28 1/4 in.)
Width:
51.4 cm  (20 1/4 in.)
Signature: [at lower left]: T.W. WOOD / 1866. Inscription: [on frame label]: MIRRORS AND PICTURE FRAMES / THOS. A. WILMURT / 54 E. 13th ST. NEW YORK
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas

    Item location

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
    American Paintings and Sculpture[Museum inv. no.: 84.12b]Gift of Charles Stuart Smith 1884

Description

In the centre foreground, in front of a provost marshall's office a Black recruit stands, carrying a musket. In the left background (viewed through the open door of the office) a cylindrical drum (probably a tenor drum).

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Cylindrical drum [2532] (Possibly a tenor drum)

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1

Notes

The painting belongs to a series of three paintings, "A bit of war history." The others are both in the Metropolitan Museum of Art also: "The contraband" (84.12a) and "The veteran" (84.12c)

Wood uses the same environment and background for all three paintings with only small variations. It is said that the series was inspired by a black soldier injured during the Civil War.

RIdIM record id

3208