UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

2017 marked the 200th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone for the University of Virginia. Jefferson’s ultimate vision for our country was that Democracy could only survive with an educated populace. By the time the cornerstone was laid, he had already drawn out much of how he envisioned the architectural layout.

In 2016 I was approached by the board of the Colonnade Club, housed in Pavilion 7 on the lawn, the first structure to go up in 1817 and the foundation of which was the setting of the cornerstone event, a large dugout hole in the ground with a brick foundation. 

Back then, it was a farm, a field. There was nothing else except for Jefferson’s designs and ideas. On that day, many of the Charlottesville citizens paraded up to the hill with Jefferson leading the group and both James Madison and the current president James Monroe joined him for the ceremony.

No artist had ever visualized that moment when it all began and I was asked to create the scene, to make that day real, first in graphite on paper – to look a bit like an old engraving but then the project expanded into a large, full-scale color painting. 

It now hangs in the entrance hall of Pavilion 7.