GEORGE WASHINGTON, attributed to American artist George P.A. Healy

GEORGE WASHINGTON
attributed to George Peter Alexander Healy, after Gilbert Stuart's “American Kings” portrait
oil on stretched canvas, 30 x 25”
Circa 2nd quarter 1800's; no signature found

Canvas type : identified by the late Dr. Hereward Lester Cooke, then curator of painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, as linen of the distinctive weave type as was used by Gilbert Stuart; he dated the canvas to the first quarter of the 19th century.
Stretcher type : early 19th century type of "joined" construction.

Image : Bust length figure looking left, of the Gilbert Stuart Athenaeum type. Stuart painted the Athenaeum portrait from life in 1796, but left it unfinished, using it thereafter as a model for other commissioned Washington portraits, varying the details of costume, accessories and background. Facial characteristics are of Stuart's late Athenaeum type. The Zea-Silverman portrait corresponds most closely to the likeness which today survives only in the DOGGETT-MAURIN-PENDLETON lithograph, after the oil portrait Stuart painted on commission in 1822 for his friend Doggett, the Boston picture framer and art dealer. Doggett commissioned Stuart to paint the first five presidents, each half length, oil on canvas, 40 x 32", to include "backgrounds...emblematic of the character of the administration of each President...In the picture of Washington...a sheathed sword and a rainbow are represented, signifying that war and strife had ceased and the storms of the Revolution passed away. In each...tassels are...appended to the draperies; they were intended to illustrate the number of terms that each served. This set was known as the "American Kings" and also the "Doggett Presidents"*.
In 1825 Doggett "engaged with Pendleton in the printing and publishing of his lithographic prints of the presidents" * The resulting lithographs, believed to be executed by Maurin, thus bear the title today "DOGGET-MAURIN-PENDLETON".
In 1839 Doggett sold the series of presidential oils to Abel Phillips (sometimes spelled "Phelps") (for $2,861.50, the set). Phillips moved them to Washington, where he hoped to persuade Congress to purchase them, at $1,000.00 each, for the White House. He placed them on loan to the Congressional Library at the Capitol, where they still hung on December 24, 1851 when fire swept through, destroying much of the collection of books and art works. Stuart's Washington commissioned by Doggett was recorded "destroyed".
The Washington oil was destroyed, but the corresponding oil of Monroe was saved from the fire. Comparison between facial proportions in the Monroe lithograph and its oil model show a shift in proportions, echoed in comparing the Zea-Silverman Washington with the corresponding lithograph in the series.

Attribution : Stuart's lost oil appears to be the direct source for the present painting, copied some time between 1822 and 1851. A strong possibility is the American artist George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-1894) famous as a portrait painter and portrait copyist. Healy's biography specifically cites several Washington portraits that he painted on commission after Stuart originals; he had a long connection to Stuart's studio through Stuart's daughter Jane (also a painter) whom he knew from her early childhood; he thus had plausible access to the distinctive canvas type. Healy is on record as recommending in January 1851 -- nearly a year before the fire -- that Congress purchase Stuart's Doggett series of presidential portraits. Palette and brushwork of the Zea-Silverman Washington further support the Healy attribution.

Provenance : Purchased by the present owner about 1969, from Jesse E. and Margaret (Mrs. Jesse E.) Zea, from their home at 422 Ethan Allen Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland. The Zea's stated that the painting came from his side of the family, the Virginia side, and that they had inherited it directly from Washington Light Infantry (WLI) Captain Edward W. Zea (1829-1904). According to the Zeas, the painting had hung in the WLI headquarters building since the 19th century, or turn of the century at least.
Papers trace Mr. Zea's side of the family to Winchester and Spotsylvania County, Virginia, as far back as the 18th century. Another prominent family member and WLI member was John Mansfield, Sheriff of Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
Margaret Zea, according to family papers, was descended from the first British Governer of Rhode Island.

Condition notes : When examined in the 1960's, it clearly bore a 19th century relining. This was concealed (or possibly removed) when the painting was relined and restored in the 1970's.

Framing notes : When found in the attic at the Zea residence, the painting was framed in a circa 1870 wide inner frame with tuft and ball decoration within an outer leafy frame, apparently the one in which it had been displayed at WLI headquarters. It is presently in an 18th century period frame, not original, but appropriate and a perfect fit.

Price........................................................................................................................................................................................... $ 28,000.

* Swan, Mabel M. "The 'American Kings'". Antiques, Vol XIX, no. 4, April, 1931,pp 279f, and Vol XX, July 1931.
** de Mare, Marie. G.P.A. Healy, American Artist, New York, 1954.