Fort Necessity unveils new painting
Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington has a new painting of the battle that started the French and Indian War just in time for the upcoming 250th anniversary of the conflict. The painting illustrates the Battle of Fort Necessity from the British side and its name is taken from a description of the land, written by George Washington to Virginia Gov. Robert Dinwiddie “A Charming Field for an Encounter.’
In an afternoon ceremony at the visitors’ center Friday, artist Robert Griffing of Gibsonia and Robert Eberly of the Eberly Foundation, which commissioned the painting, removed a black cloth that covered the framed painting, which is almost 7 feet wide and 2 feet, 6 inches high on canvas.
“The unveiling of this painting is the first of several events planned to commemorate the story of Fort Necessity and its role in American history,’ stated Superintendent Joanne Hanley in her remarks to a room filled with officials and interested local residents.
Other events, Hanley said, will include an encampment of several hundred volunteer re-enactors to take place on and around July 3, 2004, the actual anniversary of the battle.
Hanley also reported, “The Pittsburgh Symphony has been invited to perform to lend a fitting tribute to the commemorative occasion.’
The greatest commemoration is the planned interpretive and education center, which will open in 2004. It will replace the center that currently intrudes on the historic landscape and is too small to accommodate large groups of visitors. Fort Necessity, which is the only national park that tells the story of the French and Indian War, will be able to offer an enhanced description of that story through new exhibits that include points of view from the British, French and Indians. In addition, the center will present the story of the National Road, which runs along present-day Route 40 where Fort Necessity in located.
The new exhibits will include Griffing’s “A Charming Field for an Encounter’ (actually the first exhibit finished for the new center) along with a painting of the French and Indian War side of the battle that will be completed by the artist next year.
Both paintings will be enlarged to form murals four times the height and width of the originals. They will be displayed in a circular room in the new center to give visitors the sense of standing in the middle of the armies.
Eberly, an enthusiastic supporter of the new interpretative center, told the crowd at the unveiling that he looked for something to distinguish it and decided on a painting. He enlisted the aid of Washington County artist Nat Youngblood.
“We need to have something big to do with the battle of Fort Necessity,’ Eberly recalled he told Youngblood.
Eberly, who was accompanied at Friday’s ceremony by his wife, Elouise, said that Youngblood stated he didn’t have enough energy for the project but told him, “‘I can get you a man’ and that’s how I met Robert Griffing.’
Eberly praised the work of Griffing, who is considered one of the foremost painters of the Native American and specializes in 18th century Eastern Woodland Indians.
The Fort Necessity painting proved a challenge for Griffing after the decision was made to painting Washington and his troops in the opening moments of the battle when 300 people stood on the grounds.
“I’m used to doing smaller vignettes of no more than 20 to 30 people in a historical scene,’ Griffing told the Herald-Standard in an interview before the ceremony. “This painting was difficult in another way in that I had to put more detail into it due to the fact that it will be blown up four times its size when it’s placed in the visitors’ center.’
At the ceremony, Griffing told the crowd, “This is the first time I got involved with doing something of this magnitude. I underestimated it. It took about six months. I estimated three months. There was a lot of research involved in this painting.’
Griffing credited historian Scott Stephenson of Wilmington, Del., with help in doing the painting. Griffing said that research included: where all the people were, where the Virginia line was, how many were in the line, the different companies in the line, information about the South Carolina Independent Co. featured in the painting, what the officers looked like and how they were dressed and appeared.
“There was a lot of little detail that we had to be constantly aware of,’ Griffing said. “We found a lot of it in diaries and journals, but there were still a lot of things missing. This is what we’re able to find off of existing documentation.’
But Griffing noted the painting educates the public on what actually happened the day of the battle. Washington, on horseback, calls his troops into the open and lines them up to fight European style. They stand looking into the distance as they notice the French are starting to flank the British, adapting Indian warfare instead.
“You have to imagine what the troops were going through and their feelings and fears,’ Griffing told the crowd. “A lot of them – even British regulars – had never seen conflict.’
The battle began in late morning and lasted eight hours.
Ranger Brian Reedy reported that 32 men were killed and 70 wounded on the British side while two French soldiers and one Indian died.
In closing the ceremony, Hanley presented Eberly with a framed limited edition print of “A Charming Field for an Encounter.’
Griffing autographed posters of the painting at a reception afterwards. Posters are available to the public now and limited edition prints will be available in the fall. Copies of Griffing’s book “The Art of Robert Griffing’ are also available for sale at the visitors’ center.