O vigia
1863
Edwin Forbes captured a rare moment of quiet during the chaos of the American Civil War in this 1863 sketch. Titled 'The Picket,' it shows a soldier standing guard—leaning casually against a massive, leaning tree near the Rappahannock River in Virginia—while a comrade sits by the water's edge, perhaps fishing or just resting. Unlike the grand, heroic battle paintings of the time, Forbes was an artist correspondent who sketched real life on the front lines for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. This gives us a gritty, realistic look at the boredom and tension of soldiering, far from the glory of combat.