Virginia Historical Society: Hoffbauer Murals

View Virginia Historical Society in a larger map

Visit our “Tour Destination: Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia” page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Signs announcing the restoration work on the Hoffbauer murals at the
Virginia Historical Society.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society.

Virginia Historical Society

428 North Boulevard

Richmond, VA

Website:  Virginia Historical Society

The Treasure:  To explain why these murals are a national treasure, I yield the floor to Dr. Paul Levengood, Virginia Historical Society President and CEO:

“The Memorial Military Murals by Charles Hoffbauer are an American treasure because they are one of the best examples of how elements of the United States population overcame the pain and destruction of our bloodiest conflict. They are the preeminent visual artistic symbol of what came to be known as the ‘Lost Cause,’ a southern response to defeat in the American Civil War.”

Spring Mural  by Charles Hoffbauer.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society.

Summer Mural  by Charles Hoffbauer.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society.

Autumn Mural  by Charles Hoffbauer.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society.

Winter Mural  by Charles Hoffbauer.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society.

Accessibility: The Virginia Historical Society’s library and galleries are open Monday through Saturday from 10 to 5 and on Sunday from 1 to 5, except for major holidays. Admission is free for all visitors. There are always great exhibitions in the galleries to visit, most drawing heavily upon both the Historical Society’s permanent collections and the large archaeological collections of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

The Virginia Historical Society maintains a museum of changing, long-term, and traveling exhibitions; offers public lectures, seminars, conferences, and consulting services; arranges school and general group tours and activities; publishes teacher resource materials; conducts teacher training and re-certification workshops on- and off-site; operates a research library; and supports research through an endowed fellowship program and minority internships. Their long-term exhibition The Story of Virginia: An American Experience can be viewed online.

A painting conservator at work
on the Spring Mural.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical
Society.

The Four Seasons of the Confederacy (also known as the Memorial Military Murals) by Charles Hoffbauer are in the gallery to the left of the main entrance. Depending upon the current nature of the restoration work, limited access to the gallery is sometimes permitted. At those times, you may get to see conservators from Richmond Conservation Studio at work cleaning and restoring the murals.

Notes:  Charles Hoffbauer (1875-1957) was a French artist who received a commission in 1913 from the Confederate Memorial Association to paint four giant Memorial Military Murals commemorating the Civil War. Hoffbaeur immediately began work on his grand Four Seasons of the Confederacy concept but his work was interrupted by World War I. He returned to France to fight in the war and what he saw changed his vision for the murals. When Hoffbauer returned to Virginia at the end of the war, he altered his earlier work to express his new insights.

Usually interpreted as capturing the “Lost Cause” movement, a nostalgic historical view that celebrated the nobility of Confederate troops in a doomed crusade (see Gone With the Wind for a robust example of “Lost Cause” sentiment), the Four Seasons of the Confederacy can also be viewed as a universal depiction of disillusionment following warfare. In the Spring Mural, the troops are young and eager. The Summer Mural indulges in hero worship, mythologizing the Confederate leadership. The Autumn Mural leads the enthusiastic troops into battle. And the harsh and despairing Winter Mural depicts retreat and defeat.

World War I had profoundly influenced Charles Hoffbauer. During his service in the war, his illustrations of battle scenes were published in the French magazine L’Illustration.  Their somber mood is close in spirit to the Winter Mural—suggesting that for the war-weary artist, all war was a “Lost Cause.”

Artillery Convoy by Charles Hoffbauer (published in L'Illustration).

Senegalese Soldiers on the Road to Assevillers
by Charles Hoffbauer (published in L'Illustration).

Infantry Pushing Through a Village at Night
by Charles Hoffbauer (published in L'Illustration).

(I stumbled upon these evocative World War I illustrations by Hoffbauer on Shane Peterson’s delightful “Accidental Historian” website. There’s more Hoffbauer art to admire there!)

Notes from the Editor:  A very sincere thank you to E. Lee Shepard, Vice President for Collections at the Virginia Historical Society, who introduced me to the Dinwiddie and Custis collections and then very graciously allowed me inside the mural gallery for a close-up look at the conservation of Four Seasons of the Confederacy. The Richmond Conservation Studio is cleaning and conserving the murals, an enormous task that they hope to complete by 2014. As for the murals, they are magnificent.

Other Recommended Sites:  The Hoffbauer murals aren’t the only impressive artwork in the immediate vicinity. Just a block further down the road, you can visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and enjoy its remarkable permanent collections. We could mention the South Asian, Himalayan, and African collections, or the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, but this blog is about American treasures, so we’ll simply point out great works by Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Hart Benton, Robert Henri, George Inness, Cecilia Beaux, Louis C. Tiffany, and many more.

Visitors witness conservation in action as restoration work
progresses on the Spring Mural.
Photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  Washington Monument Sculpture Group
Wednesday’s destination:  Library of Virginia

© 2012 Lee Price