Compensation

Compensation

George Cochran Lambdin (1830–1896)

1865

Oil on canvas

Sewell C. Biggs bequest; 2004.462

During the Civil War, artists witnessed the horrors of a divided country at war with itself, and so documented both the immediate and long-term effects of battle. Compensation focuses on the more personal, psychological results of wartime. A convalescing Union soldier, suffering from an unidentified injury, stares hopelessly out the window of opportunity, clearly denoting Lambdin’s critique of the war’s effect on soldiers.