Painted portrait of Edmund Kirby-Smith
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- Legacies Classification
- Memorial Type
- Memorial Context
- Memorialized Subject
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- Background and Context
- Physical Description
- Creator/Participating Person(s)
- Date Modified
- Historical Period
- Campus Location
- Location: Institution, City, State
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Memorial Artwork
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Visual Work of Art
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Painted portrait of Edmund Kirby-Smith
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This posthumous portrait of Edmund Kirby-Smith as an elderly man attired in his Confederate uniform was among the historical portraits of the founders and officials of the early University of the South hanging in Convocation Hall. It was removed to the University Special Collections in 2018 and replaced by a portrait of Wylie Blount Miller, a post-Civil War benefactor. The reason for the exchange is unknown.
The artist was Narcissa Owen (1831-1907), a self-trained portraitist living in Lynchburg, Virginia. According to her published memoir, Owen painted it at the suggestion of Kirby-Smith's brother-in-law, William Selden, after Kirby-Smith's death in 1893. Selden recommended she produce the portrait for the collection of “Confederate historical memorials” then being assembled in Richmond. However, once she finished it, she decided instead to give it to Kirby-Smith's widow. (Memoirs of Narcissa Owen, 111). The details of how it came into the possession of the University of the South are unknown.
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Oil on fabric. Framed: 38.25" x 33.25".
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Owen, Narcissa (1831 -1907)
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2018
Position: 131 (25 views)