General Washington
This print was made to illustrate Lavater's "Physionomie", Paris, 1820, vol. 6. The bust-lenth image of the general derives from a painting by Charles Willson Peale, its oval frame supportd by a panel that shows the British General Lord Cornwallis surrendering to George Washington at Yorktown on October 21, 1781. The latter reproduces a 1782 print by the French artist Le Barbier titled "Reddition de l'armée du Lord Cornwallis" (Lord Cornwallis' Army) and is part of a series, "Recueil d'estampes représentant les différents évènements de la guerre qui a procuré l'independance aux Etats-Unis de l'Amérique" (Collection of prints representing events that secured the independence of the United States of America), published in Paris by Nicolas Ponce. France's crucial military support to America during the Revolutionary War is underscored here. See 83.2.70 for an earlier, more fully developed, version of this print.
Artwork Details
- Title: General Washington
- Series/Portfolio: Lavater's, Physionomie
- Artist: After Charles Willson Peale (American, Chester, Maryland 1741–1827 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
- Artist: After Jean Jacques François Le Barbier (French, Rouen 1738–1826 Paris)
- Author: Related author Johann Caspar Lavater (Swiss, Zurich 1741–1801 Zurich)
- Sitter: George Washington (American, 1732–1799)
- Published in: Paris
- Date: 1820
- Medium: Etching and engraving
- Dimensions: Plate: 8 1/4 × 5 3/4 in. (21 × 14.6 cm)
Sheet: 11 15/16 × 9 1/16 in. (30.3 × 23 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of William H. Huntington, 1883
- Object Number: 83.2.24
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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