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Description

Fine family portrait of George Washington and family, with the Potomac River in the background, based upon a painting by Edward Savage.

The first engraving of this famous painting, described by Morgan as "one of the most important of the Washington portraits." It depicts Washington with Mrs. Washington, her two grandchildren, and his longtime valet William Lee, an enslaved man who would be freed upon Washington's death the following year.

Savage painted the basis for this portrait from life in 1789; he and several assistants worked on the plate intermittently for eight years before its publication. Four copies were delivered to Washington. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., presently displays the large painting.

Upon the table, the map laid out before Washington and his family depicts a map drafted under the direction of Pierre L'Enfant, which laid out the future District of Columbia, bounded by the Potomac River and the Eastern Branch (later the Anacostia River), which would become the future capital of the United States by Proclamation dated March 30, 1791.

L'Enfant presented the earliest draft map of the future City of Washington, D.C. to Washington on June 22, 1791, suggesting that the map must have been incorporated by Savage at a later date. 

To Washington's right,  a large terrestrial floor globe is shown with a compass below the globe.

Condition Description
Stipple engraving. Moderate repaired wear including several repaired closed tears, two of them 4 inches and extending into the image, publisher's imprint line cropped. Some abrasion of the image with manuscript infill. Laid down on heavy tissue.
Reference
Fowble 202; Hart 235; Morgan & Fielding, Life Portraits of Washington, pages 183-6; Wick 55.