"The Battle of Minden," by Johann Gerhard Huck, shows a British victory over the French in 1759 during the Seven Years War.

Washington and Lee University’s “The Battle of Minden” Exhibited until Mid-June in Watson Galleries   Lexington, VA (May 25, 2017) - "The Battle of Minden," an oil painting that has been on loan to Mount Vernon for more than 35 years, is back with its current owner, Washington and Lee University. It is on view in the Watson Galleries until mid-June. The hours of the Watson Galleries are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The painting will then be on display in the Benefactor Room in Washington Hall at W&L through the end of 2017 before returning on loan to Mount Vernon. “The Battle of Minden,” which belonged to both George Washington and to Robert E. Lee, was initially a gift to George Washington in 1783. Following his death, it stayed at Mount Vernon until Martha, his widow, bequeathed it to her grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. His daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (Mrs. Robert E. Lee) inherited it in 1859 with Arlington plantation. In 1861, as Union troops were approaching Arlington, Mrs. Lee packed her valuables, sent her paintings to Ravensworth plantation in Fairfax County, and left Arlington. The plantation was seized and occupied, and Mrs. Lee never returned. A decade later, the family paintings were shipped by packet boat from Ravensworth to Lexington when Lee became president of Washington College; however, an explosion caused the boat to sink, submerging the paintings in water. They were rescued and reunited with Mrs. Lee; and several paintings were sent to Baltimore for restoration. George Washington Custis Lee, the eldest son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Custis Lee, inherited the family paintings after his mother’s death in 1873. When he died in 1911, he bequeathed a third of the family paintings to his sister, Mary Custis Lee, and a third to his brother, Robert E. Lee Jr. A final third was divided equally between his nephews, Robert E. Lee III and George Bolling Lee. In 1922, Robert E. Lee III died, and several of his Lee family paintings came to the university, including "The Battle of Minden." In 1976, as part of the national bicentennial celebration, W&L loaned "The Battle of Minden" to Mount Vernon, where it remained for years. In 2015, during renovation of the room where it first hung at Mount Vernon, the university and the Mount Vernon Ladies Association agreed to jointly fund conservation of the painting. During initial examination, conservators at the Richmond Conservation Studio found evidence to support the painting’s physical history: vertical losses from being rolled while off its stretcher (probably when it was sent to Ravensworth for protection), water damage that supports the assumption that the painting was on the boat that sank on its way to Lexington, and a 19th– century replacement stretcher that is evidence of early restoration of the painting. During initial examination, conservators at the Richmond Conservation Studio found evidence to support the painting’s physical history: vertical losses from being rolled while off its stretcher (probably when it was sent to Ravensworth for protection), water damage that supports the assumption that the painting was on the boat that sank on its way to Lexington, and a 19th– century replacement stretcher that is evidence of early restoration of the painting.

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