B & C, Düsseldorf, printer, after painting by Henry Mosler, Lost Cause, circa 1868, chromolithograph mounted on linen, Gift of Henry M. Marx in memory of Agnes Mosler Marx, 1976.552

Verbal Description

Hello, my name is Jeff Burkhart. I am a Gallery Attendant at the museum. I will be reading the verbal description for Lost Cause, one of several works devoted to the Civil War in Henry Mosler Behind the Scenes: In Celebration of the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial.

This chromolithograph mounted on linen titled  Lost Cause was printed in circa 1868 by B &C, Dusseldorf after the painting by Henry Mosler. It was a gift of Henry M. Marx in memory of Agnes Mosler Marx. The accession number is 1976.552

Lost Cause measures 19 and 3/16 inches by 25 and 13/16 inches. In the mid-ground of the picture, we see a broken-down wooden house with a central front door. Part of the left side and the front door are missing. We see a crumbling stone chimney on the right side of the house. The entire structure is overgrown with plants and trees. In the space outside the home, we see pieces of wood, scraggly plants, rocks, and grass.

In the foreground and just to the right of the house is a middle-aged man. He has brown hair and a beard and is dressed in a gray military uniform with a red shirt underneath. He wears a matching gray hat with a stiff upturned brim. He has a canteen, sword, and knife hanging at his side and wears a pack on his back. The man has a long rifle on which he leans – the butt on the ground and the barrel next to his down-turned head. He folds his hands over the barrel, and his chin rests on his hands. He is not facing the viewer but turns slightly to the left.

Label Text

Hello, my name is Jeff Burkhart. I am a Gallery Attendant at the museum. I will be reading the label for Lost Cause, one of several works devoted to the Civil War in Henry Mosler Behind the Scenes: In Celebration of the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial.

This chromolithograph mounted on linen of Lost Cause was printed in circa 1868 by b&C, Dusseldorf after the painting by Henry Mosler. It was a gift of Henry M. Marx in memory of Agnes Mosler Marx. The accession number is 1976.552.

Although Mosler sided with the Union, he accepted a commission after the Civil War from Albert Berry, a prominent lawyer, statesman, and Confederate veteran, to paint Lost Cause (now in the Johnson Collection). It depicts a despairing Confederate soldier returning from the war to find his home abandoned and in shambles. The poignant image conveys the overwhelming sense of loss associated with war.

Appearing here, with Mosler’s evocative oil study for the derelict house, is the widely distributed chromolithographic print that made his painting an "icon of Southern culture," as one scholar has described it. "The Lost Cause" was a popular expression referring to the destruction of the South and the loss of traditional southern culture resulting from the war. Those mourning "The Lost Cause" implicitly lamented the abolition of slavery, the backbone of southern life.

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