Civil War
Oil Portrait of Confederate States President Jefferson Davis
c. 1860s Civil War Era, Original Oil Painting on "Tent" Canvass, Portrait of Confederate Sates of America President Jefferson Davis, Signed, "Hiram Grandville / C.S.A." by artist Hiram Grandville (1815-1892) a Confederate veteran, Framed, Choice Extremely Fine.
This dramatic, quite striking Oil Painting on period "Tent" Canvas of CSA President Jefferson Davis measures about 22" x 28", and is modern professionally framed to fully 28" x 34" and viewed through special protective UV Plexiglas. This impressive Civil War vintage painting has been professionally restored in December of 1990, by expert conservator Barry Bauman of the Chicago Conservation Center, where it was cleaned, lined, restretched, Maimeri retouch, and Winton varnish. It is Signed, "Hiram Grandville / C.S.A." at lower right. The image shows a very serious looking Jefferson Davis in waist-up pose facing right, wearing his formal black suit, with his hand upon a book. This is certainly a fine piece of Civil War era folk art, rendered even more primitive by the highly unusual use of "Tent" canvas, as opposed to stretched artists' canvas. Not inspected out of its current frame, and stated to have and inscription and signature on the back of the canvas. The inscription reads, in full: "Jefferson Davis / Confederate President of the United States / Montgomery, Alabama / February 18, 1861 / Hiram Grandville."
Little is known about Hiram Grandville except he was a Confederate veteran from either Texas or New Mexico and painted in the late 1860s into the 1870s.
Another collection of Grandville paintings, including similar oil portraits of Davis and Mosby together with Lee, Stuart, Johnston and Jackson, is found in the personal holding of well-known collector Paul DeHaan. (DeHaan had purchased his collection decades ago from in Tennessee " some of the paintings are dated from the 1860s.)
This is certainly a fine piece of folk art, rendered even more primitive by the highly unusual use of tent canvas as opposed to stretched artists' canvas.