Beschreibung:

Described as “the most important series of eyewitness views of the war,” Nebel’s body of ambitious work is discussed at length in the 1989 book Eyewitness to War-Prints and Daguerreotypes of the Mexican War, 1846-1848. Carl Nebel (1805-1855) was a German born engineer and draughtsman who had relocated to Mexico in 1829 and is best known for his “renowned illustrated work on that country.” Just after the Mexican War, Nebel’s detailed sketches were painstakingly printed and hand colored in Paris, finally published in the United States 1851 as a twelve print portfolio titled The War Between the United States and Mexican Illustrated. The early edition prints were sold at three different price points differentiated by the type of binding--from plain paper to ornate leather. The series was later expanded and sold by subscription and, as sales stalled, individually. The prints were marked “C. Nebel fecit” with “Entered in Act of Congress” in oval cartouche lower left at margin, measuring 18” x 13” of live area being original size and untrimmed. Utilizing the latest in printing techniques, Nebel’s work met with laudatory reviews even as the camera was revolutionizing visual communication. The monthly New York City literally magazine Knickerbocker wrote that “the natural scenery in Nebel’s prints was represented with the faithfulness of a daguerreotype reflection.” The scenes offered here are titled Assault on Contreras (August 1847) and Storming of Chapultepec (September 1847), two battles that involved the Regiment of United States Voltigeurs, an obscure regular organization raised especially for the Mexican War in February 1847. One of the Voltigeur regiment’s majors was George Alfred Caldwell and it is from a Caldwell Estate Sale held in Louisville, Kentucky in December 1996 that the pair of prints originated. Caldwell, born in Columbia, Kentucky, in 1814, became a lawyer and politician serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives during the 1839-1840 term. He had subsequently been elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives in the Twenty-eighth Congress from 1843 to 1845. Caldwell had joined the army in June 1846 as quartermaster of volunteers and was briefly transferred to the 3rd US Infantry in March 1847. On April 9, 1847 Caldwell was assigned to the Voltigeur Regiment and actively campaigned in Mexico for the duration. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel in September 1847 for “gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Chapultepec” and mustered out in August 1848. Caldwell returned to Congress in 1849 finishing the term in 1851, but deciding not to run again. Thereafter, he practiced law in Louisville until his death in 1866. George Alfred Caldwell was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery The two Nebel prints acquired by their military ancestor as a memento of his Mexican War service had descended in the Caldwell family until being sold in 1996. Provenance: Hays & Associates, December 14, 1996 Sale, Lot #184 Condition: The Chapultepec print with two small areas of in-painted repairs lower right. Both prints housed in modern gilded frames and glass measuring about 29” x 20”, near EXC.