FAQ
Download
Add to set
Favorite
Posse icon
Share
Print
Playing Soldiers
- Artist: George Henry Story, American, 1835-1922
- Medium: Oil on board
- Dates: 1877
- Dimensions: 23 11/16 x 16 7/16 in. (60.1 x 41.8 cm)
- Signature: Unsigned
- Collections: American Art
- Museum Location:
This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, Everyday Life/A Nation Divided, 5th Floor - Accession Number: 83.127
- Credit Line: Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Designated Purchase Fund
- Image: Overall, 83.127_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
By the time this work was painted, painful memories of the Civil War had receded enough in the national consciousness that George Henry Story, who specialized in genre scenes of children, could make battle the focus of child’s play. “Fighting” under the banner of the American flag, the three smiling youngsters embody the patriotic pride and optimism surrounding America’s celebration of its 1876 Centennial. Story originally painted an intact sword hanging from the middle child’s belt, then changed it to a broken one (a fragment appears on the floor)—an alteration probably made to emphasize the fact that this mock conflict is waged with harmless toy weapons.
arikan
sassyass
miarte
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum