[CIVIL WAR]. BRADY, Mathew (1822-1896), photographer. Gen'l. Robt. E. Lee and Staff. Washington, DC, 1866.

8 1/2 x 7 3/8 in. albumen photograph on original 13 x 10 in. mount bearing title, Gen'l. Robt. E. Lee and Staff, with M.B. Brady & Co. imprint and 1866 copyright line. Housed under mat in period frame, 16 x 12 in. (Toning to print, scattered residue on print and mount, toning and staining on mount, mount edges trimmed; some surface wear and small chips to frame.)

A fine image of the aged general, with his eldest son, General George Washington Custis Lee, on the left, and Colonel Walter Taylor on the right, taken at Lee's Richmond home on Franklin Street in April, 1865, not long after Appomattox. Mathew Brady made six negatives on the occasion, all are seldom encountered. Brady would later recount that there was little conversation, though Lee changed his position according to his directions. Brady had been present from the first battle of the Civil War at Bull Run until this "final" session, which completed his photographic coverage of the war, and this photograph is certainly one of his most celebrated images (See Meredith 1981: 60-65).