Lawrence Washington
Socially and politically well connected, Lawrence Washington (1718-1752) was destined for greatness, but a lingering illness contracted while serving with the British in the Caribbean cut short his promising life. The loss was deeply felt by his younger half-brother, George Washington, to whom Lawrence had served as affectionate mentor after their father died in 1743. Through Lawrence, George was introduced into some of Virginia's finest families, thereby enabling him to learn and perfect his social graces as well as further his career as surveyor. In 1761, George inherited Mount Vernon from Lawrence's widow. He placed his half-brother's portrait in his private chamber in the Mansion, his Study - a fitting tribute to the man who helped make him who he was.
In frame, W-126/B.
Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 24, fig. 3.
Clark, Ellen McCallister, "George Washington's Study," Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989).
Margaret Brown Klapthor, and Howard Alexander Morrison, George Washington: A Figure Upon the Stage (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982), 112, fig. 71.
Jenny Girton Walker, "An English Admiral and an American Shrine," Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine 63, no. 2 (February 1929): frontispiece, 69-76.
Charles N. Callahan,Washington: The Man and Mason (Washington, D.C.: Press of the Gibson Bros., 1913), opp. p. 23.
Benson J. Lossing, Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical and Pictorial (New York: 1859), 30.
