Confederate Soldier [on the Battlefield at Antietam]
September 1862
![Confederate Soldier [on the Battlefield at Antietam] by Alexander Gardner|Brady & Co.](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/confederate-soldier-on-the-battlefield-at-antietam-259606.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 6.1 x 9.8 cm (2 3/8 x 3 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Florance Waterbury Bequest, 1970
Accession Number
1970.537.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Captured in September 1862 by Alexander Gardner for Mathew Brady's studio (Brady & Co.), *Confederate Soldier [on the Battlefield at Antietam]* is a stark albumen silver print from a glass negative, measuring just 6.1 x 9.8 cm. This intimate photograph depicts a fallen Confederate soldier amid the carnage of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history on September 17, 2, where over 22,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. As one of the earliest battlefield photographs of the Civil War, it revolutionized public perception of conflict. Previously, war imagery was roma...
About the Artist
Alexander Gardner|Brady & Co.
Alexander Gardner was born on 17 October 1821 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and came of age in a culture shaped by radical social thought. Influenced by the cooperative ideals of Robert Owen, Gardner initially apprenticed as a jeweler and harbored dreams of founding a utopian community in America. His encounter with photography changed the course of his life. After seeing Mathew Brady's cele...