Oil on Canvas, 27 x 39 1/4 in.

Gift of Mrs. Wilfrid D. Sharp

Loan Courtesy of the Western Reserve Historical Society

Self-taught artist from Wellington, Ohio, Archibald Willard, catapulted to sudden and unexpected artistic fame in 1876, when his Spirit of 76, Yankee Doodle was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and quickly became an icon of American patriotism in the process. In this later work, Willard depicts a group of civil war veterans, subject close to his own heart since he too, fought in the civil war, with the 86th Ohio Infantry. Doctor Wilfred D. Sharpe (1880 - 1946), who donated this work to the Western Reserve Historical Society, was a physician who maintained a private practice in Shaker Heights for most of his life. (Another Willard painting hangs in the second floor hallway of the Union Club opposite the elevator. Perhaps one of Willard’s best pictures, Minute Men of the Revolution, hangs in the third floor hallway by the elevator.