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 The Soldier's View: The Civil War Art of Keith Rocco
Text by Robert I. Girardi
List Price: $69.95 Hardback: 192 Pages
Publish Date: August, 2005
Review by Brian Williams
The Soldier's View: The Civil War Art of Keith Rocco (Text
by Robert I. Girardi) is a great Civil War art book with more than
100 paintings, murals, and sketches and is only the second Rocco book
published in the past ten years.
The paintings, murals, and sketches presented in this books range
from battlefield scenes, to routine camp life and all subjects in
between. But, this book is much more than just paintings, etc. The
paintings themselves are worth the price of this book, but in addition to the
paintings, Girardi includes an abundant amount of text that gives the reader
background to the paintings and an insight into why Rocco included specific
features in his paintings.
As an example, we can take one of Rocco's paintings "Counterattack - The West
Woods" in the book which shows the charge of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry
Regiment. The reader is shown the painting (size in the book is approx.
6" by 6") and given eight paragraphs of text on the 2nd South Carolina and the
battle of Antietam. The background of the battle and the focus on the 2nd
South Carolina gives the reader a much better understanding of
the painting. The features, actions, and participants in the
paintings take on greater importance and add hugely to appreciating the
painting. Also, tidbits about the paintings themselves, such as unit
uniform designs, hat insignia, flags, rifles, etc. are explained in great
detail.
This book is a great book to read and to peruse over even just admiring the
paintings. I was amazed that one man has painted so many
different paintings on the subject (with many more I'm sure not included in the
book). I will definitely keep my eye out for Rocco prints in the
future.
I highly recommend this book to everyone and especially anyone interested in
Civil War art or military art.
Review by Brian Williams (militaryhistoryonline@hotmail.com)
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