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Washington's Home

Washington's Home
Washington's Home
Washington's Home
Status
On view
Label Text

This luminous painting of the view to the Potomac from within Mount Vernon’s deteriorating piazza represents a key moment in Mount Vernon’s history: the period just before its acquisition by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. It was executed in 1857 or 1858 by Hudson River School painter Louis Remy Mignot following a visit to Mount Vernon with his friend and collaborator Eastman Johnson. The pair were guests of the last Washington family owner, John Augustine Washington III, for at least an evening. This work is the only extant Mignot landscape painting of Mount Vernon, and it is presumed to be the source for the view in “Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, 1784" (1859), executed jointly with Thomas Rossiter. Notably, this image represents the present–the decayed state of the mansion in the late 1850s—while “Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, 1784," glosses the past.

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Date1857/1859
Artist (American, 1831 - 1870)
Geography Probably made - United States
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas; gilt wood
DimensionsOverall (Frame M-3108/B): 35 1/2 in. × 48 in. × 5 in. (90.17 cm × 121.92 cm × 12.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Catherine M. Redington in memory of John H. Redington of Boonton, New Jersey, 1987 Conservation courtesy of The Founders, Washington Committee Endowment Fund
Object numberM-3108
DescriptionA horizontal landscape in spring or summer depicting the piazza of Mount Vernon and the summer house beyond. The view is taken from the piazza, just north of the central passage hall door, and looking toward the southeast, with the Maryland shore beyond. The piazza is empty and appears deteriorating, in need of paint and repair, particularly the ceiling. The floor of the piazza has worn to the brick at foreground left, while planks of board are shown at right. Four columns are shown, and each is in need of paint. There is the beginning of a dirt path beyond the piazza to a large expanse of green lawn at left that extends toward a stand of trees and the summer house--the center of the composition--before the river beyond. The grass contains small red blooms and there is a large shadow cast by the mansion across much of it, as well as a nearly figure-shaped shadow at the end of the piazza. The pale blue sky and clouds of the background both have a golden glow and a pink cast, suggesting sunset. The hills of the Maryland shore are painted in purple tones.

The painting has an original gilt wood and composition ornament frame (M-3108/B).

Published ReferencesLeslie King-Hammond, “The Most Famous Plantation of All: the Politics of Painting Mount Vernon,” in Landscapes of Slavery: The Plantation in Southern Art (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2008), 86-114.

Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills, Eastman Johnson: Painting America (New York: Rizzoli International Publications and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1999). (General Reference)

Katherine E. Manthorne with John W. Coffey, Louis R. Mignot: A Southern Painter Abroad” ( North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, October 20, 1996-January 19, 1997, cat. 50, 188.

Neil Horstman, “The Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union,” Antiques: CXXXV (February 1989): 2, 454-455.

Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as First President of the United States. Committee on Art and Exhibition, Catalogue of the Loan Collection of Portraits, Relics, and Silverware Exhibited at The Metropolitan Opera House, New York, April 17th to May 8th, 1889 (New York: Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, 1889), #287, 69.

Thomas P. Rossiter, A Description of the Picture of the Home of Washington After the War Painted by T.P. Rossiter and Louis P. Mignot (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1859). (General Reference)

"Sketchings" The Crayon, 5: 11, (November 1858), 328.

Thomas P. Rossiter, "Mount Vernon, Past and Present, What Shall be its Destiny?" The Crayon, 5: 9, (September 1858), 243-253. (General Reference)
Mount Vernon's object research is ongoing and information about this object is subject to change. For information on image use and reproductions, click here.
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