George Washington

Status

Not on view

Label Text

This portrait of George Washington was made in the late 1790s by Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick, an amateur artist who was one of three attending physicians the night the President died. Dr. Dick copied and adapted his portrait from a pastel portrait by James Sharples. As a visitor to Mount Vernon during Washington’s lifetime, Dr. Dick would have seen the James Sharples pastel of the President made from life in 1796 which was hung in the front parlor, and is now again at Mount Vernon (W-1962). Dr. Dick’s portrait resembles the numerous copies the Sharples family made, which unlike the original, are all oriented to the proper right.

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Datec. 1799

Artist Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick (American, 1762 - 1825)

Subject George Washington (American, 1732 - 1799)

After James Sharples (English, 1751/2 - 1811)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas; gilt wood frame

DimensionsOther (Canvas): 10 1/4 in. × 9 1/2 in. × 7/8 in. (26.04 cm × 24.13 cm × 2.22 cm)

Credit LineBequest of James Alfred Pearce, 1921

Object numberH-258

DescriptionProfile portrait of George Washington in civilian dress, facing proper right with shoulders slightly turned to the proper left. He is shown with blue eyes, a long, slightly hooked, aquiline nose, and a florid complexion. His gray hair is powdered and worn ‘en queue’ with a sawtooth bow and black queue bag, long sideburns and fullness over the ears. He wears a white stock and black velvet coat; there is a light application of pale gray along the upper proper left shoulder which extends downward to delineate the sleeve.

The brown tones in the ground of the painting very from a dark taupe to a warm brown to darkest brown at the outer edges. There is an approximately half inch band of brown paint below the figure at the bottom of the painting. There is an approximately one inch band of what appears to be masking tape wrapped around the edges of the painting, and a foam core backing board.

The simple gilded wood frame is currently removed from the painting.

Published ReferencesJ. Upshur Dennis, “Open Letters: The Last Portrait of Washington, and the Painter of It,” THE CENTURY ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE, February 1904, 606, 627-629.

“Excerpts from a memoriam for Judge Pearce,” in MARYLAND REPORTS: CASES ADJUDGED IN THE COURT OF APPEALS IN MARYLAND, 1922, 138: 35.

J.D. Sawyer, WASHINGTON, (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1927): 484-485.

OUR TOWN 1749-1865: LIKENESSES OF THIS PLACE AND ITS PEOPLE TAKEN FROM LIFE (Alexandria, VA: Alexandria Association, 1956), 1-2, plate 2.

Smithsonian Institution, PROFILES OF THE TIMES OF JAMES MONROE (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1958), 1, 12-13.

Katherine McCook Knox, THE SHARPLES (New York: Kennedy Graphics, Inc., 1972), cat. 48, 67, 90.

John Rhodehamel, THE GREAT EXPERIMENT: GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 169.

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