Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- George Washington, appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental army, took command of a ragtag force of some 17,000 men in July 1775. He kept an army together for the next eight-and-a-half years-losing more battles than he won-but effectively ended the war with his victory at Yorktown in October 1781. Mission accomplished, Washington-a hero who could have been king-resigned his military commission before Congress on December 23, 1783, and retired to Mount Vernon. Here, the man all artists yearned to portray posed in his Continental army uniform for English artist Robert Edge Pine and wryly observed, "I am so hackneyed to the touches of the Painter's pencil, that I am now altogether at their beck, and sit like patience on a Monument."
- Provenance
- The artist; public auction 1792. Anthony Fothergill [1732-1813]; John Coakley Lettsom; (Leigh and Sotheby), London, May 2-4, 1816; (Shaw Armour, Montreal), Dec. 14, 1816. Henry Brevoort purchased it in Toronto 1817; his son James Carson Brevoort; his nephew Grenville Kane; his daughter Edith Kane [Mrs. George F. Baker]; her son George F. Baker, Jr.; his widow, Mrs. George F. Baker, Jr. [Kim K. Campbell, Mrs. Rolla D. Campbell, Jr.]; purchased 1980 NPG
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Robert Edge Pine, c. 1730 - 1788
- Sitter
- George Washington, 22 Feb 1732 - 14 Dec 1799
- Date
- 1785
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Sight: 90.2 x 69.9cm (35 1/2 x 27 1/2")
- Frame: 101.6 x 81.6 x 6.4cm (40 x 32 1/8 x 2 1/2")
- Type
- Painting
