William Gilbert Gaul

Background

William Gilbert Gaul was born on March 31, 1855, at Jersey City, New Jersey.

Education

After studying in the public schools of Newark, New Jersey, and at the Claverack Military Academy, Gaul immediately took up the study of drawing and painting in New York, becoming a pupil of L. E. Wilmarth at the school of the National Academy of Design, 1872-76, and of John G. Brown, as well as in the Art Students’ League of New York.

Career

Both Wilmarth and Brown were genre painters, and their disciple naturally turned to the same line of work, his early motives being popular and sentimental figure pieces; but it was only when he began to specialize in military subjects that he found his vocation and won public favor.

In addition to his work in painting, much of his time and thought was given to illustration. His pictures of Civil-War episodes were spirited, dramatic, excellent in drawing and characterization.

Since he was but an infant at the time of these events, the vivid visualization of the stirring scenes of battle, march, and camp, superior to the pictorial efforts of most of the earlier painters who had been eye-witnesses, is evidence of a striking imaginative force.

He traveled far in quest of materials, spending much time in the Far West at army posts and on Indian reservations, going also to Mexico, the West Indies, Panama, and Nicaragua. Uniforms and arms of many kinds were to be seen in his studio.

The historic accuracy of each detail was studiously sought, and the models who posed as soldiers were fit types of the men who fought in the Civil War. “The Captain, ” for instance, is a perfect military type, as living as any figure produced by Detaille or De Neuville.

He was made an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1879, and became an academician in 1882.

He exhibited several of his most interesting war pictures in the eighties and nineties, notably his “Charging the Battery, ” “Saving the Colors, ” “Silenced, ” “Holding the Line at all Hazards, ” “With Fate Against Them, ” “Guerillas Returning from a Valley Raid, ” and “Taking the Ramparts. ”

All of these canvases were remarkable for energy of action, actuality, truth to conditions such as place and period, and, above all, their spirit of belligerency.

He died at the age of sixty-four, at his home in New York, after a long illness.

Achievements

• Gaul's work as an illustrator was in constant demand. The war papers published in Century Magazine kept him busy, and three of his paintings were used as frontispieces in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. His illustrations of the life of the cowboy and the Indian were popular. A series of twelve of his drawings, made to illustrate his own account of his travels in Mexico, Central America, and Jamaica, was exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893. Gaul was fairly entitled to the distinction of being the most capable of American military painters. He is represented in the Toledo Museum of Art, the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, and the Democratic Club, New York.

Works

More photos

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  • William Gilbert Gaul Leaving Home - 21" x 28" Premium Canvas Print

    (21" x 28" William Gilbert Gaul Leaving Home premium canva...)

  • Civil War Times Illustrated Magazine January 1977 (Pinkerton feature) (Volume XV, No. 9)

    (This Civil War Illustrated magazine appears to have been ...)

  • William Gilbert Gaul News from the Front - 21.05" x 28.05" Peel & Stick Removable Wall Decal

    (21.05" x 28.05" William Gilbert Gaul News from the Front ...)

  • Art Oyster William Gilbert Gaul Captured by Confederates - 20.05" x 25.05" Premium Canvas Print Gallery Wrapped

    (20.05" x 25.05" William Gilbert Gaul Captured by Confeder...)

  • William Gilbert Gaul Indian Meditation - 21.05" x 28.05" Peel & Stick Removable Wall Decal

    (21.05" x 28.05" William Gilbert Gaul Indian Meditation re...)

  • William Gilbert Gaul Rainy Day in the Garret - 20.05" x 25.05" Peel & Stick Removable Wall Decal

    (20.05" x 25.05" William Gilbert Gaul Rainy Day in the Gar...)

  • William Gilbert Gaul Homesteading in Tennessee - 21.05" x 28.05" Peel & Stick Removable Wall Decal

    (21.05" x 28.05" William Gilbert Gaul Homesteading in Tenn...)

  • Art Oyster William Gilbert Gaul The Infantryman - 15.05" x 30.05" Premium Canvas Print Gallery Wrapped

    (15.05" x 30.05" William Gilbert Gaul The Infantryman prem...)

Connections

Gaul was married late in life, September 1898, to Marian, daughter of Vice-Admiral A. Halstead, R. N.

Father:

George W. Gaul

Mother:

Cornelia A. (Gilbert) Gaul

Wife:

Marian Halstead