Auction details
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Robert Knox Sneden (American, 1837 -1911), Civil War Vignette,
Watercolor on stiff bristol-type board, titled in manuscript The Cochton River. Soldier's Home. Bath. Steuben County N.Y. Looking South, signed l.l. and dated Oct. 1904 l.r., ; 7.50 x 5.5 in. Sneden enlisted at age 24 as a private in the 40th New York in 1861, and became a draftsmen and topographic engineer in 1862. He served in the Peninsula Campaign, and following his duty, went to Washington, and was later captured by John S. Mosby at Brandy Station and held in a number of southern prisons, including Libby in Richmond, and Andersonville in Georgia. After his parole in 1864, he worked for a while as an architect before dying in 1911 at the New York State Soldiers and Sailors Home in Bath, New York, the subject of this image. It was not until the mid-1990s that Sneden's real accomplishment and life's work come to light. During the war he apparently kept detailed diaries and made a number of sketches which he assembled into an album. Using these as inspiration, during the 1870s-90s, he produced a 6000-page manuscript memoir of his service, illustrated with hundreds of original watercolors of scenes from the Virginia Theater, POW camps and more. The collection was ultimately purchased by the Virginia Historical Society, and not long afterwards Simon and Schuster purchased the publication rights for the memoir for a reported $355,000. The subsequent book "Eye of the Storm. A Civil War Odyssey" (C.F. Bryan, Jr. and N. D. Lankford, editors) The Free Press, New York, was published in 2000. While the vast majority of Sneden's works are curated at the Virginia Historical Society, at least five paintings have been located in the collections of the New York Historical Society, and several of his maps are curated at the Library of Congress and the National Archives. While titled the "Cochton River" this painting was completed while Sneden was a resident of the Soldier's Home, and where he was eventually to die, unrecognized. Accomplished primarily in muted tones of browns, greys, and blacks, this image seemingly reflects Sneden's advanced age and concern with his own mortality. It contrasts strikingly to his earlier works, which employed bright coloring to emphasize the action of the War years. Condition reportCorners of board very slightly worn partially affecting the "W" of Sneden's signature.
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