$3,321
Washington, George (1732-1799) Hand-colored Engraved Portrait on Silk, Le General Washington. Paris: Le Mire, 1782. Engraving of Washington at camp, printed on silk and hand-colored, bottom portion lost, with legend and imprint information trimmed away, fragmentary at top left corner, and along left side; text at the foot difficult to read; engraved by Noel Le Mire (1724-1800) after Jean Baptiste Le Paon (1738-1785), after Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), 14 1/2 x 11 in. Charles Willson Peale had painted four different life portraits of Washington by 1782. The French artist Jean Baptiste Le Paon borrowed Peale's depiction of the man from the 1776 portrait owned by the Marquis de La Fayette at the time, and now held at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Le Paon added the tent, landscape, soldiers in the distance, Washington's attendant William Lee, and notably, littered the ground in front of Washington's feet with torn and trampled British proclamations and bills meant to control the colony. In his right hand, Washington holds the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Alliance with France.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2016-05-18
