Pomegranate 1000 Pieces Jigsaw Puzzle This monumental-size oil painting, the largest portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, is a popular visitor attraction within the historic Patent Office Building. Measuring ten feet by sixteen feet, Grant and His Generals can be seen in one of two grand curved staircases; the piece appears as if it had been painted especially for this ornate space. Yet the work was actually the result of an 1864 private commission by a New York merchant who planned to tour it to raise money for charity. Ole Peter Hansen Balling, a Norwegian-born artist who had served briefly in the Union army, won the commission to paint the North’s most successful soldier, General Ulysses S. Grant, and twenty-six of his senior officers. In 1864, Balling spent five weeks at Grant’s headquarters at City Point, Virginia, making sketches of the generals and their steeds. Next, Balling spent a year painting his masterpiece. The merchant who had commissioned it, however, died before it was finished. Except for a brief showing in New York in 1866, the canvas never toured. The painting lay in storage for years until it came into the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Puzzle size: 29 x 20 inch.