In this podcast, curator Eleanor Jones Harvey discusses 6 featured paintings from "The Civil War and American Art" exhibition. This episode is an introduction.

"The Civil War and American Art" examines how America's artists represented the impact of the Civil War and its aftermath. The exhibition follows the conflict from palpable unease on the eve of war, to heady optimism that it would be over with a single battle, to a growing realization that this conflict would not end quickly and a deepening awareness of issues surrounding emancipation and the need for reconciliation. Genre and landscape painting captured the transformative impact of the war, not traditional history painting.

Exhibition website: http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/art_civil_war/