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Lot # 176: Amazing U.S. Grant Photograph with Composite Background

Category: Historical

Starting Bid: $300.00

Bids: 1 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed

Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "June 2005",
which ran from 5/30/2005 12:00 AM to
6/26/2005 9:00 PM



There are numerous photographic and artistic renderings of Ulysses S. Grant both as General and President, but we've never seen anything like this remarkable composite that incorporates both photography and art. Moreover, we've never seen Grant -- who was almost always pictured in a tight shot from the torso up -- in this full-bodied position - making this one of the most unique portraits of the man ever done. Dated 1890, 8 years after Grant's death, it mixes an actual photo of Grant with meticulous hand-painted art strokes to depict a stone-faced Grant in full military regalia, but with one foot jauntily propped up on a fallen wooden stancheon of a stable, one hand gripping an upright other wooden stancheon and the other cradling a pair of binoculars! -- while in the background a stable boy tends to Grant's horse, which seems to gaze longingly at its master. All around is a surreal hand-painted glen of trees, rocks and shrubbery. Layered in subtle shades of b&w, the piece reads "Copyrighted 1893 by D. H. Anderson" with the addendum "Copies on sale, 785 B'way, N.Y." 17 x 20 1/2" image is in near pristine condition and mounted within a white matted border surface under glass in a finely detailed, double-tiered gold and red frame sized overall to 25 x 30". Condition of the actual photograph is EX+, the frame has a few dings

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