Washington’s First Grave at Mount Vernon, VA

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Not on view

Label Text

This painting shows a perspective of Mount Vernon that is difficult to comprehend in the landscape today, as the staircase is now removed. While it is inscribed “Washington’s First Grave at Mount Vernon, Va,” the tomb itself is virtually invisible in the scene. (It appears just above and to the proper left of the staircase and proper left dead tree.) The painting represents one of several known landscape works by A. Zeno Shindler, a Bulgarian or Romanian-born photographer and painter whose biography is shrouded in mystery. Shindler likely visited Mount Vernon sometime in the 1870s or 1880s before producing this unusual work. Employed by the Smithsonian Institution for many years, Shindler produced photographs of Native Americans for their first photographic exhibition in 1869, and created paintings based on the photographs which were shown the following year.

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Datec. 1867-1899

Artist Antonio Zeno Shindler (1823-1899)

Geography Possibly made - United States

Medium/TechniqueOil on artist's board

DimensionsOverall (H x W x D): 7 3/16 in. × 12 in. (18.26 cm × 30.48 cm) Overall (frame): 19 7/8 in. × 15 1/8 in. × 2 5/8 in. (50.48 cm × 38.42 cm × 6.67 cm)

Credit LineGift in memory of Ruth Miller Easton, 2015 Conservation courtesy of The Founders, Washington Committee Endowment Fund

Object numberM-5389/A-B

DescriptionHorizontal, rectangular fall landscape scene depicting the site of the old tomb at Mount Vernon viewed from the northwest. The focal point of the scene is a grassy knoll, where a woman in a blue Victorian dress walks along what appears to be a masonry pathway set atop the knoll, toward a set of stairs descending a hill. The barely visible tomb entrance is located behind and the knoll, at her proper right. Two dead trees are placed on either side of a central tree with orange leaves; the proper left tree has some green leaves at its front. The proper right foreground is occupied by another, slightly lower knoll, which is separated from the central knoll by a small valley. An African American man in navy blue pants and a white shirt and straw hat with a red bandanna emerging from his back pocket and a rake slung over his shoulder walks through the valley toward the proper left of the composition. To the proper left of the central knoll, the land drops off and the trees appear at a distance; the area appears shrouded in mist. The Potomac River and Maryland shore are visible in the background of the composition along the horizon. In the foreground, there are a large dead tree to the proper left of the composition and a small shrub at the center. The painting features a light blue sky, fall foliage colors, and is lit from the proper left.

The gilt wood frame has a deep cavetto profile and is decorated with composition ornament. The outer edge of the frame is decorated with a row of molded leaves pressed into the raised surface; the cavetto has a band of acanthus leaves alternating with three bellflowers of decreasing size. The liner consists of two flat gilded surfaces, a row of beheading, and two additional flat surfaces. The outer sides of the frame are a deep cavetto terminating in a modified guilloche border. A rectangular brass plaque with astragal ends is attached to the center of the frame below the composition. It includes a label with black lettering with the inscription "A Z Schindler / Mt. Vernon."

SignedIn red paint at lower left edge, in triangulated form, artist’s monogram: “AZS”
Published ReferencesPaula Richardson Fleming, Native American Photography at The Smithsonian: The Shindler Catalogue (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: 2003), 1-28. (General Reference.)

Andrew J. Cosentino, The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800-1915 (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: 1983), 102, 104, 271. (General Reference.)

Obituary from The Washington Post, August 9, 1899. (Typescript copy in curatorial file, sent by Philadelphia History Museum.)

Mount Vernon's object research is ongoing and information about this object is subject to change. For information on image use and reproductions, click here.

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