Grant and His Generals

This monumental-size oil painting, the largest portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, is a popular visitor attraction within the historic Patent Office Building. Measuring ten feet by sixteen feet, Grant and His Generals can be seen in one of two grand curved staircases; the piece appears as if it had been painted especially for this ornate space. Yet the work was actually the result of an 1864 private commission by a New York merchant who planned to tour it to raise money for charity.

Ole Peter Hansen Balling, a Norwegian-born artist who had served briefly in the Union army, won the commission to paint the North's most successful soldier, General Ulysses S. Grant, and twenty-six of his senior officers. In 1864, Balling spent five weeks at Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia, making sketches of the generals and their steeds. Next, Balling spent a year painting his masterpiece. The merchant who had commissioned it, however, died before it was finished. Except for a brief showing in New York in 1866, the canvas never toured. The painting lay in storage for years until it came into the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

From left to right: Thomas Casimer Devin, George Armstrong Custer, Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, William Hemsley Emory, Philip Henry Sheridan, James Birdseye McPherson, George Crook, Wesley Merritt, George Henry Thomas, Gouverneur Kemble Warren, George Gordon Meade, John Grubb Parke, William Tecumseh Sherman, John Alexander Logan, Ulysses Simpson Grant, Ambrose Everett Burnside, Joseph Hooker, Winfield Scott Hancock, John Aaron Rawlins, Edward Otho Cresap Ord, Francis Preston Blair, Jr., Alfred Howe Terry, Henry Warner Slocum, Jefferson Columbus Davis, Oliver Otis Howard, John McAllister Schofield, and Joseph Anthony Mower.