Return to the "POINTER VIEW"
                         November 2, 2001

Art history lecture planned at Stony Point Battlefield

STONY POINT, N.Y. -- David Meschutt, art historian and former curator for the West Point Museum, will give a 45 minute lecture on the images of the Battle of Stony Point and portraits of Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne at Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m.

Meschutt will present a lively slide show and discussion of 18th and 19th Century American and European artists who were eager to represent Revolutionary War images and portraits of the heroes of the war like Wayne who led the Americans in a surprise attack on the British garrison on Stony Point in 1779.

The program will be held in the site’s museum and refreshments will be served. There is a small per-person fee for this event. Call 845-786-2701 for information and reservations.

Meschutt, a resident of Cornwall, N.Y., has studied many of the portraits of Anthony Wayne in his career as an art historian. His research led to the reidentification of several works of art depicting Wayne which were once thought to be of other Revolutionary War-era gentlemen.

Comparative study and documentary evidence were the key tools to correcting the attributions of the art works. As other works surface, such as the portrait by John Ward Dunsmore after a painting by Charles Wilson Peale, which was donated to the Stony Point Battlefield museum several years ago, the history of who painted portraits of Anthony Wayne, and when and why they were done, is more fully appreciated.

Images of the Battle of Stony Point are few, but their sources and the reason for their depiction are interesting, as Meschutt will explore.

The heroic victory resulted in the creation of three military medals of honor, one each for Wayne, Lt. Col. Francoise de Fleury and Maj. John Stewart.

Each coin medal had a unique image of Stony Point fortifications on the reverse. Copies of Wayne’s and de Fleury’s are on display in the site’s museum. Along with several maps made by British and American soldiers, these are the few depictions of what Stony Point might have looked like at the time of battle.

Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site is the only Revolutionary War battlefield in Rockland County, N.Y. It is a part of a statewide system of parks, recreation areas and historic sites operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and is administered by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.