The artist hits that wonderful place where the detail is exquisite and realistic, but still looks like a painting and not a photograph.

Good post!

learn how to draw

I agree that Lovell is unjustly overlooked.

I wasn’t aware of the details of the events of this day. Nice to have some additional background.

Evidently, Grant had had a bad couple of days leading up to this event, dogging the heels of Lee wherever he turned, splitting his forces to head off Lee’s retreat, losing his luggage and suffering with a migraine headache throughout. He was never a fastidious dresser, but it’s no wonder he was especially the worse for wear in this instance.

Interestingly, the dark haired man in Union uniform, standing just behind Grant, was a full-blooded Iroquois who shares your last name: Colonel Ely Parker.

Thanks for posting this, as I think Tom Lovell is often overlooked among the great illustrators. His Civil War paintings played a large role in my interest in history and art.

I’m dating myself here, I know, but when Geographic published this, I think on the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War (1965) the painting was much remarked upon for its faithfulness to the actual event. The portraits are all officers known to have been in the room and perhaps not surprisingly the furniture is indeed as it was in the room itself. Grant, you’ll notice, wears mud-spattered boots and a military jacket that bears no indication of his rank, whereas Lee, always a gentleman, is in full parade dress, observations made by diarists present at the signing. Lovell and Geographic were fastidious about these sorts of recreations.