1913 Portrait of Robert E. Lee by Jacques Reich, Signed Artist Proof

Presented is an original, signed Jacques Reich etched portrait of Robert E. Lee. Reich completed the portrait in 1913. Robert E. Lee was an American and Confederate soldier, best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army. He commanded the Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865.

Lee was a top graduate of the United States Military Academy, graduating second in his class of 1829. Lee then served seventeen years as an officer in the Corps of Engineers, supervising and inspecting the construction of the nation's coastal defenses.  He distinguished himself during the Mexican–American War, serving on the staff of Winfield Scott during a campaign that ended with the capture of Mexico City. Lee earned three brevets for gallantry and emerged from the conflict with the rank of colonel. From 1852 to 1855, Lee served as Superintendent of West Point. 

Because of his reputation as one of the finest officers in the United States Army, President Lincoln offered Lee the command of the Federal forces in April 1861. Lee declined and tendered his resignation from the army when the state of Virginia seceded on April 17, arguing that he could not fight against his own statesmen. He instead accepted a General’s commission in the newly formed Confederate Army.  Lee served as military advisor to Jefferson Davis, until June 1862 when he took over command for the wounded General Johnston in Virginia. 

Lee renamed his command the Army of Northern Virginia, and under his direction it would become the most famous and successful of the Confederate armies. He repulsed George B. McClellan‘s army from the Confederate capital during the Seven Days’ Battles and won hard-fought battles at Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. The Maryland and Pennsylvania campaigns he led resulted in major contests at Antietam and Gettysburg. Lee offered a spirited defense during the Overland Campaign against Ulysses S. Grant, but was ultimately outmaneuvered and forced into a prolonged siege at Petersburg. President Davis named the Virginian General-in-Chief of all Confederate forces in February of 1865, but only two months later, on April 9, 1865, Lee was forced to surrender his weary and depleted army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War.

Reich was Hungarian-born portrait etcher, active mainly in the United States. After studying at the National Academy of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Reich established a studio in New York City in 1885. Working on private commissions and portrait designs for Appelton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography and Scribner’s Cylodaedia of Painters and Paintings, Reich honed his portraiture technique and skill. In the early 1890s, Reich began working on copper plates, etching a series of 14 portraits of American and English artists, writers, and poets.

Reich completed a series of etched portraits titled “Famous Americans”, which numbered 25 subjects, and include Hamilton, Franklin, Carnegie, Curtis, Roosevelt, Washington, Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Robert E. Lee, as displayed here.

CONDITION:

Good condition overall. Light toning, but strong impression. Plate mark is visible. Very light surface dirt to paper margins, not affecting image. Etched remarque portrait in the bottom left margin. Signed by the artist in the lower right margin. Sold unframed, as-is. 

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.