Description:
Framed needlework picture of the Washington Family based on a life-sized group portrait of U. S. President George Washington, First Lady Martha Washington, two of her grandchildren, and an enslaved African-American servant by Edward Savage (1761-1817). When George Washington married Martha Custis, she was a wealthy widow. In 1781 the couple adopted her orphaned grandchildren, George Washington Parke Custis and Eleanor Parke Custis. Based on life studies made early in Washington's presidency, Savage began the work in New York City, 1789-90, and completed it several years later in Philadelphia, 1795-96. The enormous painting (7 ft. x 9 ft. 4 in. / 213 cm. x 284 cm.) is now at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The image was a famous one in the 19th century, and prints were mass-produced by Savage beginning in 1798, and by John Sartain in 1840. The scene, which is the reverse of the Savage painting, depicts George Washington in uniform seated at a table on the right with his grandson standing behind him and touching a globe with his left hand; Martha Washington seated opposite on the left next to her granddaughter; and an enslaved servant (probably Christopher Sheels) standing behind them. In the original Savage painting, both women are looking and pointing to the L'Enfant plan of the future city of Washington, D.C. on the table in front of them. Gore Place Society has a watercolor based directly on the Savage painting in which the unknown artist has inserted a plan of the Boston Harbor. According to the donor, the needlework was done in Ashfield, Massachusetts.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+88.047 |
