Martha Washington

Status

Not on view

Label Text

This miniature, painted in 1801 by British-born artist Robert Field, is perhaps the most accurate record of Martha Washington's appearance in her final years. At the time, a visitor to Mount Vernon described it as a "striking likeness" that was "drawn to please her grand children in the usual long laced cap & neckkerchief [sic], that they may see her as she affected it in her every day face." Dressed in black with a dignified and serene countenance, she appears in mourning for her husband, who had died less than two years before.

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Date1801

Subject Martha Washington (American, 1731 - 1802)

Artist Robert Field (British, 1769-1819)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueWatercolor, ivory, copper, glass, pearl, hair

DimensionsOverall: 3 1/2 in. x 2 3/8 in. (8.89 cm x 6.05 cm) Other (miniature without frame): 2 3/4 in. x 2 1/16 in. (6.99 cm x 5.23 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, 1956

Object numberW-2137/A

DescriptionOval, bust-length portrait of Martha Washington; her head and body facing slightly to the right as she looks at the viewer; she wears a white cap with black ribbon, a white fichu, a white neckerchief, and a black lace shawl over a black gown; brown background that is lightest on the right; lit from the right.

Gilded copper case with double ring holder at top; blue glass reverse with fifty seed pearls surrounding a central bezel containing a lock of blond hair; underneath the blue glass is a layer of metal foil painted with white dots.

SignedRF/1801
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills, 2006), 243.

Harry Piers, Robert Field: An Exhibition Organized by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (New York: Frederic Fairchild Sherman, 1927), 170.

Robert G. Stewart, "Portraits of George and Martha Washington." The Magazine Antiques, 135/2 (February 1989): 474-479.

William Armstrong, "Some New Washington Relics. I. From the Collection of Mrs. B.W. Kennon," The Century Magazine 40/1 (May 1890): 16-17.

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