Painting of Laying the Cornerstone
Item
- Legacies Classification
- Memorial Type
- Memorial Context
- Title
- Background and Context
- Physical Description
- Creator/Participating Person(s)
- Date created, installed or dedicated
- Date Modified
- Historical Period
- Location: Institution, City, State
- Wikidata
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Memorial Artwork
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Visual Work of Art
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Painting of Laying the Cornerstone
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Richard Brough, professor of art at the University of Alabama for nearly forty years (1948-1987), painted a series of watercolors in honor of Sewanee's centennial in 1958. He was commissioned by the Associated Alumni, a group of Sewanee alumni, and the resulting images mark four dramatic scenes from Sewanee's mythologized past. They now hang in the Sewanee Inn. During his tenure at the University of Alabama, Brough served as the head of the Art Department. His connections to Sewanee were not particularly robust, but his artistic contributions to the university continue to reinforce the dramatic narrative of a battered but ultimately triumphant aristocratic institution.
Brough's interpretation of the laying of the cornerstone puts particular emphasis on the scale of the event. According to university legend, a crowd of thousands came to Sewanee to witness the laying of the first cornerstone in 1860 - there was a band, a number of Southern Episcopal bishops, and visitors from across the state. Though the construction of the university's campus was cut short by the start of the Civil War, and the first class of students did not matriculate until a few years after the end of the Civil War, the laying of the cornerstone, and the cornerstone itself, has become firmly entrenched in the cultural narratives of the university.
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26" x 31.5" watercolor painting
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Brough, Richard
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1958
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2014
Position: 655 (105 views)