New photography by Ed Pollard captured with a digital camera-2008.

The Battle Story (The Returned Soldier)

Artist Larkin Goldsmith Mead (American, 1835-1910)

Datemodeled ca. 1863-65, carved 1865-66

MediumMarble

DimensionsBase: 28 in. (71.1 cm)
Overall: 83 3/8 x 31 7/8 x 42 5/8 in. (211.8 x 81 x 108.3 cm)

ClassificationsAmerican art

Credit LineGift of James H. Ricau and Museum purchase

Object number86.486

Terms

Soldiers
Girl
Men
Children
U.S. Civil War
White
Naturalist
Neoclassical
Florence, Italy

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is a marble statue of a soldier with a young girl on his lap. He is dressed in military uniform with a cape over his shoulders - he is a Union soldier from the Civil War in America. He has a mustache and his eyes are cast downward. The little girl reaches out to put her left arm around him; her right hand hovers near her collarbone. His right arm reaches forward toward the viewer and his left arm is around the little girl's waist. He wears knee high boots, and his the tip of his sword is visible under his left leg, where the girl sits.

Label TextLarkin Goldsmith Mead American, 1835–1910 The Battle Story (The Returned Soldier), modeled ca. 1863–65, carved ca. 1865–66 Marble Imagine the heroism and suffering this soldier witnessed during the Civil War. Newspaper illustrations and battlefield photography made the brutality of this conflict frightfully real to all Americans, but many deemed these scenes too gruesome for fine art. Larkin Mead’s Battle Story presents instead a comforting image of a survivor reunited with his daughter and narrating his adventures. The war is present, but Mead’s statue hopes for a peaceful resolution and a return to the pleasures of family life. Gift of James H. Ricau and Museum purchase 86.486