Fentress Resident Donates Painting To County

A Fentress County resident has donated a large painting of the Confederate Women’s Monument in Nashville to the county.

John Lyons said he had been holding onto the painting ever since he left American Legion Post 5 in Nashville as no one else wanted it. Lyons said it is an important part of the historical depictions seen throughout Tennessee’s War Memorial Plaza.

“It doesn’t do any good in my house or someone else’s private home,” Lyons said. “It’s a piece of public art so it just, for me, I used to work in local government as well and that just deserved to be with the public. So that was part of my wanting to save it as well, I just didn’t want it to get destroyed.”

Lyons said he took it upon himself to preserve the painting because of his love for history and the important lessons everyone can learn from it. Lyons said the piece may be controversial for its representation of the Confederacy but it is an important reminder of the burden that women bear in times of war.

“Who knows what it’ll spur for someone to remember or think about,” Lyons said. “That’s usually what art is. It’s not ever really what somebody intended, it’s the relationship between the person viewing it and the object itself.”

Lyons said the painting was originally in the War Memorial Plaza’s building where the public could see it.

“They were going to renovate and the district attorney’s office was going to take over half of it and ultimately I think they were going to change the security so it would be very difficult for the public or anyone to get to it,” Lyons said.

Lyons said he was able to get permission from the state to bring the painting with the American Legion when they moved to a different part of the building because it was not being put anywhere else.

“It’s so heavy and big and beautiful we just didn’t even know what to do with it,” Lyons said. “And so when I left nobody wanted it so I brought it with me trying to think of what to do with it and ultimately it just made sense to give it back to the public.”