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Original Portraits of Washington by E.B. Johnston
Johnston, Elizabeth Bryant. Original Portraits of Washington Including Statues, Monuments, and Medals. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882. Small folio, leather binding with 5 spine bands, doublure of leather and watered silk with elaborate gilt embossing, watered silk fly leaves, gilt page edges, 257pp and 32 plates, each with tissue guard; page with facsimile autographs of artists. The volume is dedicated to the memory of James Abram Garfield, who had just been assassinated when Johnston completed this volume in 1881. This copy sent and inscribed by the author to Garfield's wife, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, dated Feb. 22, 1882. The work is a history (or such is the claim by the author) of Washington portraiture by notables such as: Charles Willson Peale, John Singleton Copley, Joseph Wright, William Dunlap, James Peale, Edward Savage, John Trumbull, Gilbert Stuart, Rembrandt Peale, Horatio Greenough, John Sartain, and many more. The compiler notes in the Preface: As a result of the universal recognition of the character of Washington during his life, we have of him a large number of original portraits. Many of these are far from acceptable as works of art; others are even grotesque in composition and expression: yet there is no reason to doubt that his exact features, proportions, expression, and character have been faithfully portrayed....Admirers of Peale, Trumbull, Stuart, each claims that his favorite artist has left the portrait which should be considered the standard. It must be conceded that no artist succeeded in producing an entirely satisfactory portrait. Still it is a matter of congratulation that we have the elements from which to compose this desired work: they may be found in the figure of Trumbull, the expression of Peale or Stuart at different periods of Washington's life, the ungainly fidelity of Wright, the profile of Sharpless, the drawing of St. Memin, or the life-moulding of Houdon. A thorough examination of "Washington as Art" at a time when the principle artists, who had seen him in person, were gone. Condition reportMinor scattered foxing, wear to front hinge, else excellent.
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