IMPORTANT CIVIL WAR PRISON LIFE ANNOTATED WATERCOLOR SKETCH BY JOHN JACOB OMENHAUSER (1832-1877), VA PVT, CSA, on paper, a depiction of daily life at Point Lookout Prison Camp, St. Mary's Co., MD, titled "Federal Officer Buying Fans, etc." and featuring various articles being offered for sale including bone and hair effects, with various barracks in the background, extensive inked commentary and notes below the image. 1864-1865. 8 1/2" x 11" sheet
Reference: See Hollander, {{American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum}}, pp. 276 and 503, for related examples
Provenance: John Jacob Omenhauser (or Ommenhausser), a resident of Richmond, VA, enlisted as a private with Company A, 46th Virginia Infantry, on April 21, 1861. He was captured near Petersburg, VA, in 1864 and transferred to Point Lookout, MD, the largest prison camp in the North housing 20,000 prisoners on 23 acres. During his imprisonment, he produced several sketchbooks and groups of drawings recording remarkable details and insight into the daily life of Confederate prisoners and their Union captors during the final year of the Civil War. After the war, Omenhauser married his sweetheart, Annie, and had two daughters; he supported his family in Richmond as a candy maker. He died at the age of forty-six and is buried at the Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond. In addition to the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, Omenhauser's works are in the collections of the University of Maryland, the Maryland Historical Society, the Maryland State Archives, and the Alleghany College Library, Meadville, PA

Excellent condition with some light toning and foxing