Edwin Forbes
Edwin Forbes
Loading...
Files
Publication or External Link
Date
1966
Authors
Ahrens, Jacob Edward Kent
Advisor
Grubar, Francis S.
Citation
DRUM DOI
Abstract
Edwin Forbes (1839-1895) became a Special Artist for
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in 1862, and traveled
with the Union Armies during the Civil War to record the
battles and camp-scenes . Approximately 150 of his battlefield
sketches were reproduced in the pages of Leslie's.
After the war, Forbes settled in Brooklyn, New York,
where he established himself as an etcher and painter. A
vast majority of his work relied on the sketches he had
made during the Civil War.
In 1876 he exhibited his Life Studies of the Great Army,
a collection of forty etchings, at the Philadelphia Centennial
Exhibition. The etchings were well received, and
brought him national and international recognition as an
etcher. Life Studies remains his major achievement. Forbes
published Thirty Years After, An Artist's Story of the
Great War in 1891. This second collection consists of
several hundred etchings based on the battlefield sketches.
Forbes wrote a chatty text to accompany the etchings.
During the 1880's, Forbes illustrated several children's
books such as Josephine Pollard's Our Naval Heroes in Words
of Easy Syllables (New York, 1886). The etchings in these
books are of a generally poor quality.
Twelve oil paintings dealing with the Gettysburg Campaign
are among his better work. They are small canvases
which reveal his skill as a painter. Forbes also wrote a
short account of "The Gettysburg Campaign," which remains
unpublished.
Besides war themes based on the field sketches, Forbes
was interested mostly in animal studies. Some of his paintings
from the seventies resemble Tait's work during the same
period . Several charming pencil studies of ducks, hens, and
other barnyard animals have been discovered in Philadelphia
and Washington. Forbes' favorite animal, however, was the
horse. Unfortunately, most of these studies have disappeared.
One of Forbes' last achievements was the invention
of a starting-gate for horse races in 1891.