Edwin Forbes
Civil War etcher and pastoral painter
Edwin Austin Forbes was an American landscape painter and etcher who first gained fame during the American Civil War for his detailed and dramatic sketches of military subjects, including battlefield combat scenes. Forbes was born in New York, studied under Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, and began as an animal and landscape painter. During the Civil War, he was special artist for Frank Leslie's Magazine. Many of the spirited etchings he drew during the conflict were later presented by General Sherman to the government. They are now preserved in the War Office at Washington because of their historic value. After the war, Forbes painted landscape and cattle scenes, among which are "Orange County Pasture" (1879) and "Evening—Sheep Pasture" (1881). In 1877 he was made an honorary member of the London Etching Club. He died in 1895 in Brooklyn and is interred in Green-Wood Cemetery.
Artworks by this artist (357 total)
- Farm house used as a hospital by the rebels
- The battle of Chancellorsville. Scene at junction of U.S. ford road, and road to Rapidan River 1863
- A distant battle 1861-1876
- An advance of the cavalry skirmish line 1861-1876
- Near Coal Harbor, Va., June 12th 64 1864
- Old house on the battlefield of Spottsylvania 1864
- A thirsty crowd Newspapers for the Army. The race for camp 1876
- Gen. Hooker’s headquarters at the Chancellorsville house 1863
- Washing day–Column on the march 1864
- Battle of the North Anna, from the hill above Jerico Ford showing Confederate lines, Union line, and road to Jerico Ford, Virginia 1864
- Gen. Burnside’s Corp marching over the pontoon bridge into Virginia, at the town of Berlin on Thursday, Oct. 27, 1862 1862
- Gone off with the Yankees. A land flowing with milk and honey. A scouting party. An old campaigner. 1876
- St. Patrick’s Day in the army–Jumping the ditch 1863
- The battle of Antietam–Charge of Burnside 9th Corps on the right flank of the Confederate Army 1862
- Virginians going to the commissary for rations 1864
- Harry, the innocent contraband 1863
- Attack on Gen. Sedwick’s Corps. Banks Ford near Chancellorsville, seen from the north bank of the Rappahannock River 1863
- Guarding the prisoners. Petersburg, June 30, 1864 1864
- The commissary’s quarters in winter camp 1876
- St Julien; The king of the trotting turf 1881-1882