George Washington

Status

Not on view

Label Text

This unusual portrait of George Washington by French artist Jean-Baptiste Le Paon has a truly regal heritage. It was made for Louis Joseph, the Prince du Condé of the House of Bourbon, and apparently remained in Bourbon hands through the French Revolution. It descended to King Louis-Philippe I, who had himself met Washington in America in April 1797, and who reigned from 1830-1848. The source of the portrait is believed to be a small portrait which Charles Willson Peale produced for Washington’s friend and comrade, the Marquis de Lafayette.

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Datec. 1780

Artist Jean-Baptiste Le Paon (French, 1736/1738 - 1785)

Subject George Washington (American, 1732 - 1799)

After Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741 - 1827)

Geography Made - France

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas; gilt wood

DimensionsOverall (Framed HxW): 35 3/16 in. × 30 5/8 in. (89.38 cm × 77.79 cm) Overall (Unframed HxW): 25 in. × 20 1/2 in. (63.5 cm × 52.07 cm)

Credit LineAcquired through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Guerin Todd, Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Segur, Mrs. C. Lalor Burdick, Vice Regent Emerita for Delaware, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. V. Hamilton, Mrs. Lyle C. Roll, Pendleton Woolen Mills, Mrs. Richard Alexander, Vice Regent for Rhode Island, and Mr. Alexander, 1992

Object numberM-3660

DescriptionVertical, rectangular, bust length portrait of George Washington in Continental Army uniform, his head and body turned slightly to the proper right as he looks to the proper left. He wears a navy blue coat with buff colored facings, gold buttons and gold epaulettes; a buff colored waistcoat with gilt embroidery; a black neck stock; and a white shirt with collar and neck ruffles. Washington is shown with a pronounced 5:00 o'clock shadow, and, notably, brown eyes. The canvas bears the number “370” in maroon paint at the upper proper left corner.

The work is glazed in a period French gilt wood frame, in French Empire Style, with an anthemion decorated scoop, surrounding an egg and dart border, and a lambs tongue sight edge.

Published ReferencesJane Brown Gillette, “Notebook: Monsieur le General,” Historic Preservation 45, no. 6 (November/December 1993): 10.

Francois Duret-Robert, “Un American a Paris,” Connaissance des Arts no. 404 (October 1985), 87.

Lillian B. Miller, ed., The Selected Papers of Charles Wilson Peale (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1983), 1: 254, 327n40.

Edgar P. Richardson, Brook Hindle, and Lillian B. Miller, Charles Wilson Peale and His World (New York: Abrams, 1983), 52, fig. 19.

Wendy Wick, George Washington, An American Icon: The Eighteenth-Century Graphic Portraits (Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution 1982), 29.

King Louis Philippe, Diary of My Travels in America (New York: Delacorte Press, 1977). (General Reference)

Charles Coleman Sellers, Charles Wilson Peale (New York: Scribner, 1969), 182.

Joseph Downs, “A Portrait Bust of Washington,” The Metropolotan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, 4, no. 6 (February 1946), 162-165. (General Reference)

Gustavus A. Eisen, Portraits of Washington, (New York: Robert Hamilton, 1932), 1: 350-353, 394 regarding Peale miniatures to Lafayette. (General Reference)

John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas (Lancaster, PA: Lancaster Press, 1931), 33, no. 21. See also nos. 27-34, for listing of other replicas.

Charles Henry Hart and Samuel Arlent Edwards Catalogue of the Engraved Portraits of Washington (New York: Grolier Club of the City of New York, 1904), 22.

P. de Nolhac, “Le Peintre Le Paon," L'Art L’Art 60 (1901): 497.

Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Original Portraits of Washington, Including Statues, Monuments and Medals (Boston: J. R. Osgood and Company, 1882), 18.

J. Vatout, Catalogue Historique et Descriptif des Tableaux Appartenans a S.A.S. MGR. Le Dic D'Orleans (Imp. Gauttier-Laguionie, Paris, 1826), 3:331.

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