George Washington

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Status

Not on view

Date1789

Artist Anne Flore Millet, Marquise de Brehan (1749-1826)

Subject George Washington (American, 1732 - 1799)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueInk and watercolor on paper; hand-applied pigments.

DimensionsOverall (H x W): 6 3/16 in. x 5 in. (15.72 cm x 12.7 cm) Plate (H x W): Unknown, print has been trimmed. Image (H x W): 4 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in. (11.43 cm x 8.89 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, 1968

Object numberW-2508

DescriptionOval, bust-length, profile portrait of George Washington, facing the viewer's right with his hair tied in ‘en queue,’ and wearing a crown of laurel leaves. The portrait is executed in watercolor and ink on heavy paper resembling vellum. The bust itself is in grisaille, with tonalities suggestive of plaster; the ground is of deep midnight blue watercolor. The inner bust image is mounted within a lighter-weight paper ‘frame’ decorated with an outer border of ribbon and garlands of what appears to be rosemary and boxwood (palm and laurel branches), and on which the artist lettered GEORGE WASHINGTON. The paper sheet has numerous marks in sepia and black ink, though it is unsigned.
On the reverse of the watercolor, there is a pencil diagram of an oval divided into quadrants.
The watercolor was purchased with a third person note of presentation from George Washington to Anne Bingham. Note in MVLA special collections [RM-252/MS-2750].
Published ReferencesAntiques (September 1969): pp. 318, 322, 344.

Decatur Jr., Stephen "The Private Affairs of George Washington" (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company) 1933, pp. 125-6.

Detweiler, Susan Gray, "George Washington's Chinaware (New York: Abrams) 1982, pp. 120.

Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. "The Republican Court" (New York), pp. 95, 314, 409.

Hart, Charles Henry: “Original Portraits of Washington" Cosmopolitan Art Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1, (December, 1857) pp. 25.

Johnston, Elizabeth Bryant, "Original Portraits of George Washington" (Boston: Osgood and Company) 1882, pp. 48-49.

Morgan, John Hill and Mantle Fielding, "The Life Portrais of Washington and their Replicas" (Philadephia: Morgan and Fielding) 1931, pp. 143-149.

Stewart, Robert, “Portraits of George and Martha Washington” Antiques (February 1989): pp. 477.

General on Brehan miniatures, but no specific reference to MVLA:

Crackel, Theodore J., "The Papers of George Washington Digital edition, (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press) 2007.

Eisen, Gustavus A., "A Houdon Medallion," Antiques Magazine (January 1939), pp. 122-124.

Hart, Charles Henry, “Life Portraits of George Washington,” McClure's Magazine, Vol. 8 No. 4 (February, 1897), pp. 291-308.

Hart, Charles Henry, “Original Portraits of Washington” The Century, Vol. 43 Issue 4 (February, 1892) pp. 594-599.

Lossing, Benson J., "Mary and Martha: The Mother and Wife of George Washington" (New York: Harper & Brothers) 1886.

Sherman, Frederic Fairchild, "Early American Portraiture" (New York, B. Blom) 1972 pp.10-11.

MarkingsPrinted in ink above the bust image in an oval border: "George Washington".

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