George Washington

Status

Not on view

Label Text

This miniature is unusual is several ways. In addition to its enlarged round format, it depicts George Washington in a continental army uniform but with incongruous red lapels, and with very close-set brown eyes. These details suggest that the miniature was not made from life, but from a black and white print, and that the artist did not know that Washington’s lapels were buff and his eyes were blue. Signed “John Robinson,” it may have been created by the English-born artist of that name who appeared in Philadelphia in 1817.

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Date1817-1829

Artist John Robinson (English, c. 1774 - 1829)

Subject George Washington (American, 1732 - 1799)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueWatercolor on ivory, wood, metal

DimensionsOverall (Image in frame): 5 in. × 5 in. (12.7 cm × 12.7 cm) Other (Including bezel): 8 3/4 in. × 8 1/2 in. (22.23 cm × 21.59 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Lyttleton B. P. Gould, Jr., M. Chapin Krech, Dr. Shepard Krech, Alvin W. Krech, Peter Chapin, Charles Chapin, and Mrs. Charles Merrill Chapin III, in memory of Esther Maria Lewis Chapin, 1986 Conservation courtesy of The Founders, Washington Committee Endowment Fund

Object numberM-2951

DescriptionA round bust-length portrait of George Washington in uniform. Washington is presented turned three-quarters to the proper right, and gazing out in the same direction. His close-set eyes are brown. Washington wears a light yellow waistcoat with a white shirt and a lace jabot under a blue uniform with red lapels and prominent gold/yellow epaulets. His hair is powdered and worn ‘en queue’ with a black hair ribbon. Both the jabot and the hair are outlined in opaque white. Graphite also outlines the hair and other details including the buttons.

The background is in very light shades of ivory to beige and gray tones, and painted with much thicker strokes than most miniatures.

The square-shaped frame is of dark brown wood. It has a circular inset to correspond to the miniature and a metal ring hanger.

SignedAlong the lower left side in brown ink at approximately 8 o'clock: “John Robinson. f.”
Published ReferencesDaphne Foskett, Miniatures: A Dictionary and Guide (Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors Club, 1987), 630. (General Reference)

Mantle Fielding, Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers (Greens Farms, Connecticut: Modern Books and Crafts, Inc. 1974), 305. (General Reference)

George Groce and David Wallace, The New York Historical Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957), 542. (General Reference)

Theodore Bolton, Early American Portrait Painters in Miniature (New York: Frederic Fairchild Sherman, 1921), 137. (General Reference)

MarkingsOn the backing paper, below the inscription: 1. A red bordered stamp inscribed in graphite (?): 952. 2. In graphite (?):144, but crossed out.

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