{{short description|American painter (1829–1917)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Nicola Marschall | image = Nicola Marschall.jpg | caption = Self portrait of Nicola Marschall | birth_date = {{birth date|1829|3|16}} | birth_place = [[Sankt Wendel]], [[Principality of Lichtenberg]], [[Saxe-Coburg-Gotha]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1917|2|24|1829|3|16}} | death_place = [[Louisville, Kentucky]], U.S. | resting_place = [[Cave Hill Cemetery]]<br />Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | known_for = Designing the Confederate uniform and the Confederate flag | signature = Signature of Nicola Marschall.png }} [[File:CSA FLAG 4.3.1861-21.5.1861.svg|thumb|right|Nicola Marschall is said to have been the designer of the first [[Flags of the Confederate States of America|Stars and Bars]].]]

'''Nicola Marschall''' (March 16, 1829 &ndash; February 24, 1917) was a [[German-American]] artist who supported the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] cause during the [[American Civil War]]. He designed the original Confederate flag, the [[Flags of the Confederate States of America|Stars and Bars]],<ref name="EOA">{{cite web |title=Nicola Marschall |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1134 |date=2007-03-21 |first=E. Bryding |last=Adams |publisher=The Encyclopedia of Alabama |accessdate=2009-07-20}}</ref> as well as the official [[Uniforms of the Confederate States military forces|grey uniform]] of the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate army]].<ref name="ADAH">{{cite web |title=Nicola Marschall: Artist of the Deep South |url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/marschall/NM_dsth.html |publisher=Alabama Department of Archives and History |accessdate=2009-09-26 |archive-date=August 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823034204/http://www.archives.state.al.us/marschall/NM_dsth.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Biography== On March 16, 1829, Marschall was born in [[Sankt Wendel]], Germany, to a wealthy [[Prussia]]n family of [[tobacco]] merchants.<ref name="ADAH"/>

In 1849, Marschall emigrated to the United States through [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, headed for the home of a relative in [[Mobile, Alabama]].<ref name="ADAH"/>

In 1851, Marschall relocated to [[Marion, Alabama]], where he began teaching art first at his portrait studio, and then at the [[Marion Female Seminary]].<ref name="EOA"/> During this time he briefly returned to Germany to further his art technique.<ref name="ADAH"/>

Mary Clay Lockett, wife of prominent Marion attorney Napoleon Lockett, requested of Marschall to take part in the competition to create a new flag to represent the [[Confederate States of America]]. Marschall's design became the [[Flags of the Confederate States of America#First flag: the "Stars and Bars" (1861–1863)|first Confederate flag]], first raised in [[Montgomery, Alabama]], on March 4, 1861.<ref name="EOA"/> During the Civil War, Marschall served in the Second Regiment of Confederate Engineer Troops, under Samuel Lockett. After the war, he returned to Marion and married Martha Eliza Marshall.<ref name="EOA"/>

During his career, Marschall painted portraits of [[Jefferson Davis]], [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Otto von Bismarck]], various Southern families, and Confederate and Union soldiers.<ref name="EOA"/> He was one of the few who was able to have [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] pose for him. Additionally, he did many landscapes and religious paintings.<ref name="EOA"/> He was known to sign and date his portraits using a steel pen while the paint was still wet, at the bottom-right of the portrait.<ref name="ADAH2">{{cite web |title=Nicola Marschall: Artist of the Deep South: Did you know? |url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/marschall/NM_dyk.html |publisher=Alabama Department of Archives and History |accessdate=2009-09-26 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025711/http://www.archives.state.al.us/marschall/NM_dyk.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Due to the economic depression in the South following the war, Marschall returned to Mobile in 1872. In 1873, he and his family moved to [[Louisville, Kentucky]], as his friends told him it would be an easier place to gain commissions to do portraits.<ref name="ADAH"/> At the [[Centennial Exposition|Centennial International Exposition]] in [[Philadelphia]] in 1876, he won a medal for his portraits.<ref name="ADAH2"/>

In 1908, Marschall gave up working on portraits.<ref name="ADAH"/>

On February 24, 1917, Marschall died in Louisville, Kentucky. His remains were interred at Cave Hill Cemetery.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66555312/noted-artist-is-dead-at-88/ |title=Noted Artist is Dead at 88 |newspaper=[[The Courier-Journal]] |page=34 |date=1917-02-25 |access-date=2020-12-31 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66555061/stars-and-bars-and-a-uniform/ |title=Stars and Bars, and a Uniform |first=Jean Howerton |last=Coady |newspaper=[[The Courier-Journal]] |page=17 |date=1980-06-02 |access-date=2020-12-31 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery> File:Young Girl with Cat 1867.jpg|''Young Girl with Cat'', 1859 File:Mary Susan Robins - Nicola Marschall.jpg|''Mary Susan Robins'', 1859 File:The Hale Child 1863.jpg|''The Hale Child'', 1863 File:Nicola Marschall 1881.jpg|''Nicola Marschall'', 1881 File:Napoleon Lockett 1883.jpg|''Napoleon Lockett'', 1883 <!-- Deleted image removed: File:MarschallGrave.jpg|Nicola Marschall grave at [[Cave Hill Cemetery]] --> <!-- Deleted image removed: File:MarschallMarker.jpg|"Artist of Confederacy": Historical marker at Cave Hill Cemetery about Marschall --> </gallery>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category}} * [http://www.artsbma.org/collectionitemdetails?searchlayout=grid&showform=0&ordering=popular&searchphrase=exact&areas%5B0%5D=portfolio&searchcollection=Art%20of%20Alabama&areas%5B%5D=portfolio&searchlayout=details&limit=1&start=0 Sarah Rebecca Robins at the Birmingham Museum of Art] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130720100217/http://artsbma.org/collectionitemdetails?searchlayout=grid&showform=0&ordering=popular&searchphrase=exact&areas&#91;0&#93;=portfolio&searchcollection=Art%20of%20Alabama&areas&#91;&#93;=portfolio&searchlayout=details&limit=1&start=0 |date=July 20, 2013 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marschall, Nicola}} [[Category:1829 births]] [[Category:1917 deaths]] [[Category:Artists from Louisville, Kentucky]] [[Category:People of Alabama in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Confederate States Army officers]] [[Category:Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery]] [[Category:People from Sankt Wendel (district)]] [[Category:Painters from Kentucky]] [[Category:Painters from Alabama]] [[Category:American male painters]] [[Category:American portrait painters]] [[Category:19th-century American painters]] [[Category:19th-century American male artists]] [[Category:20th-century American painters]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia to the United States]] [[Category:Flag designers]] [[Category:20th-century American male artists]]