Description:

ALEXANDER GARDNER'S "A SHARPSHOOTER'S LAST SLEEP, GETTYSBURG, PA."
Most desirable (and controversial) photograph by Brady photographer Alexander Gardner, "A Sharpshooter's Last Sleep", Plate 40 in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, published 1865-66. The 9" x 7" albumen, mounted to a 13" x 10 1/2" mounted with printed title, attribution, and date, shows a Confederate soldier full-length and lying face-up, his head turned largely away from the viewer, with his kepi and rifle lying a few feet from his body. Some toning and two negligible spots to the mount from prior framing, with a chip at the upper-right of the mount, else very good. With the dramatic one-page description which accompanied the photo. Intrepid analysts have determined that this was a contrived, posed photo arranged by Gardner and his assistant. The soldier's body is apparently the same one used by Gardner in his famous image "Dead Confederate Soldier in the Devil's Den", which appeared as Plate 41 in the same book. The soldier's rifle and blanket are identical, and facial characteristics are also very similar. Apparently, Gardner photographed the body on a slope and then moved it to the rocky sniper's nest at Devil's Den, forty yards away. And incredibly, Gardner claimed that he found the soldier's bones and weapon in the same place forty days later! Nevertheless, Gardner's story succeeded in transforming this casualty into a particular character in the drama, a man who suffered a painful, lonely, unrecognized death.

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September 11, 2013 11:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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