Georges Washington Motier de Lafayette

Status

Not on view

Label Text

"This likeness of Georges Washington Motier de Lafayette was taken from life by English artist James Sharples in Philadelphia in May 1796, when it was paid for by George Washington. It depicts the son of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was named in tribute to General Washington. The young Lafayette, disguised as a peasant, escaped France during the Reign of Terror. He came to live with the Washingtons in Philadelphia in early spring of 1796, remaining in their household until October 1797. Shortly after his departure from Mount Vernon, young Lafayette wrote to Washington: “in your house I have been as happy as I could be separated from my family, and the time which I passed with you will never be forgot.” This portrait hung in the Front Parlor of Mount Vernon with Sharples’ portraits of George and Martha Washington, Nelly Custis and George Washington Parke Custis."

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Date1796

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

Subject Georges Washington Motier de Lafayette (French, 1779 - 1849)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniquePastel on laid paper.

DimensionsImage (H x W): 9 in. × 7 in. (22.86 cm × 17.78 cm) Overall Framed (H x W): 12 1/2 in. × 10 3/8 in. (31.75 cm × 26.35 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. A. Smith Bowman, Jr. and Mr. Robert E. Lee IV, 1985

Object numberW-2019/A-B

DescriptionThis pastel is an oval profile portrait of Georges Washington Motier Lafayette, the son of the Marquis de Lafayette. He is depicted facing left with shoulders slightly turned to the right. He has blue eyes with dramatically darkened eyelashes. Lafayette’s complexion ranges from pale ivory to peach; above the eyes the skin appears sienna-colored. His hair is powdered and tied back with a narrow black ribbon. He wears a white stock and jabot and a velvet coat in tones of navy to royal blue, which has a turned down collar with a notch between the collar and the lapel. The white of the powdered hair has transferred to the top of the coat. The simplified and muddied colors of the background range from ochre at proper left along the sitter’s coat to tones of brown in the middle region, to a deep blue-black at upper area.
1796
Published ReferencesCustis, George Washington Parke, "Recollections and Private Memoirs of 1860" (Washington D.C.: William H. Moore) 1859, 525.

Knox, Katherine McCook, "The Sharples" (New York: Kennedy Graphics, Inc.) 1972, 92,100,101; 93, 105.

Lossing, Benson J., "Mount Vernon and its Associations" New York: W.A. Townsend & Company) 1859, 286, 293-295.

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