Rosenthal, Louis N. “The Soldier’s Dream of Home.”

Louis N. Rosenthal.  “The Soldier’s Dream of Home.” 

Philadelphia: William Smith, 1864.  Lithograph.  16 ½ x 22 1/4.  Repaired tears in margins and old stains at top just touching image.  Otherwise, very good condition.  

Louis N. Rosenthal was one of four brothers who emigrated from Poland around the middle of the century and worked in lithography in Philadelphia.  The Civil War, not surprisingly, offered Louis and his brothers an opportunity of producing prints with a ready market.  This stirring image shows a soldier sleeping in an encampment, over which flies the American flag, while dreaming of coming home to his family.  A sad print which would have rung a familiar note with its intended audience of those who stayed at home and dreamed of their sons, husbands and fathers away at the front.