Existing comment:
Hope Restored.
This remnant is all that could be preserved of James Hope's dramatic view of the aftermath of Blood Lane. Hope was a professional artist who first rendered a series of portrait size paintings and then created these large panoramic works. The photograph surrounding the painting was taken from one of Hope's smaller versions of the same work.
The paintings were first exhibited in his gallery in Watkins Glen, New York. After Hope's death in 1892, the gallery was closed and fell into disrepair. A flood in the 1930s destroyed much of his work and severely damaged the battle panoramas. The Antietam scenes were purchased by an art collector and stored in a church for many years where the paintings were further damaged by birds and rodents.
In 1979, the National Park Service purchased the paintings and began a rescue effort. Now painstakingly restored, the four complete painting and this fragment provide us one veteran's vision of the Battle of Antietam. |