"I start the painting, and they show up...."
This is how I describe my approach to a really large task: painting portraits of every person killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which took place on a hot and dusty slope in southeastern Montana June 25-26, 1876. It's almost overwhelming, but not quite.
I feel the need to humanize a battle that is so often described in terms of maneuvers. But mostly I want to honor the dead - more than 300 of them. It will give life to the dead, an idea that sparked in me many years ago when I first visited the battlefield. I felt uneasy when I was there. I felt the ghosts, like something wasn't finished. So I am giving them faces and stories. And then maybe they can rest.
No one knows what most of these guys looked like (very few photos exist,) but I do have enlistment descriptions and stories that guide my paintbrush. Biographies, letters, telegrams and eye-witness accounts will accompany these faces. You will be able to handle everything but the painting.
There will even be a painting of all the horses lost at this horrific battle.
The 150th anniversary of the battle is in 2026 and I am bringing its aftermath to you in a kind of portable cemetery. I hope you stay awhile and get to know everyone.
Follow me on Instagram for show updates https://www.instagram.com/jennyniemeyerart/
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