W&L paintings part of national exhibit
Art from Washington and Lee University will be featured in a Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant exhibit at the New York Historical Society in New York City.
Entitled “Grant and Lee in War and Peace,” the exhibit will run from October 17 to March 2009. The exhibit seeks to show the similarities, differences and accomplishments of the Civil War icons.
Washington and Lee University contributed art from the Washington-Custis-Lee collection, including a marble bust of Lee and a copy of Charles Wilson Peale’s portrait of George Washington. The most significant painting on loan from Washington and Lee is the Benjamin West painting of Lee with his wife, Mary Randolph Custis Lee, said Katie Gardner, curatorial assistant at the university. Also included is a painting of Lee’s mother, Anne Hill Carter Lee.
Visitors can see military items in the exhibit, including Lee’s dress uniform, sword, pistol and spurs and Grant’s coat and leather saddle.
Along with military items, the exhibit showcases personal items including Lee’s sketches as an Army engineer and two of Grant’s watercolor paintings.
The New York exhibit is based on a previous presentation by the Virginia Historical Society in 2007 to commemorate Lee’s 200th birthday. Though the focus was first on Lee, the society needed a way to observe Lee’s birthday with a diverse community in mind, and Grant was included.
“Grant and Lee” is on a three-year tour of the country. The exhibit’s next stop will be the Museum of Southern History in Houston, from May 2009 to September 2009. Its final stop will be the Atlanta History Center from November 2009 to February 2010.
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