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Identification and Creation

Object Number
H49
People
Edward Savage, American (Princeton, MA 1761 - 1817 Princeton, MA)
Sitter: George Washington (1732 - 1799)
Title
George Washington (1732-1799)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1790
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States, Massachusetts, Boston
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299816

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
77 x 64.5 cm (30 5/16 x 25 3/8 in.)
framed: 84.8 × 72.1 × 5.7 cm (33 3/8 × 28 3/8 × 2 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: E. Savage Pinx. 1790

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Gift of Edward Savage to Harvard College, 1791.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard University Portrait Collection, Gift of Edward Savage to Harvard College, 1791
Accession Year
1793
Object Number
H49
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Samuel Atkins Eliot, A Sketch of the History of Harvard College: And its Present State, C. C. Little & J. Brown (Boston, 1848), p. 83, 179
  • "Washington Portrait by Savage", The Historical Magazine, C. Benjamin Richardson (New York, 1858), p. 47
  • Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, Ticknor and Fields (Boston, 1867), p. 50
  • Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Original Portraits of Washington, Including Statues, Monuments and Medals, J. R. Osgood and Co. (Boston, MA, 1882), pp. 44-46, ill. p. 44
  • Clarence Winthrop Bowen, ed., History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington, D. Appleton & Co. (New York, NY, 1892), p. 544, ill. opp. p. 14
  • "The Harvard College Portrait of George Washington Painted by Edward Savage", The Harvard Graduates' Magazine (Cambridge, MA, June 1895), Vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 502-505, pp. 502-505, ill. opp. p. 453
  • William Garrott Brown, A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University, Harvard University Library (Cambridge, MA, 1898), p. 43
  • Perry A. Atherton, "When Washington Lived in Cambridge", The Harvard Illustrated Magazine (February 1900), vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 111-123, ill. p. 112
  • Charles Henry Hart, "The Congress Voting Independence"; a painting by Robert Edge Pine and Edward Savage in the hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1905), p. 15
  • Charles Henry Hart, Edward Savage, Painter and Engraver, Cambridge University Press (Boston, 1905), pp. 5-8
  • John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and their Replicas, Lancaster Press, Inc. (Lancaster, PA, 1931), p. 180
  • Frederic Fairchild Sherman, Early American Painting, The Century Co. (New York and London, 1932), p. 180
  • George Washington Bicentennial Committee, George Washington Bicentennial Historical Loan Exhibition of Portraits of George Washington and his associates, exh. cat., United States Government Printing Office (Washington, D.C., 1932), p. 13, no. 11
  • Gustavus A. Eisen, Portraits of Washington, R. Hamilton & Associates (New York, 1932), vol. II, p. 457
  • Laura M. Huntsinger, Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University, ed. Alan Burroughs, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 143
  • Washington, Lafayette, Franklin: Portraits, Books, Manuscripts, Prints, Memorabilia, for the Most Part from the Collections of the University, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1944), p. 10, cat. 3
  • Louisa Dresser, "Edward Savage, Painter 1761-1817", Art In America (1952), vol. XL, no. 4, pp. 191-194; p. 192, ill.
  • Alexander C. Brown, "The Chancellors of William and Mary", Daily Press (Newport News, VA, 1965), p. 5
  • Louise Todd Ambler and Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, "American Painting at Harvard", Antiques (New York, NY, November 1972), vol. 102, no. 5, pp. 876-883, p. 876, fig. 1
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 22, ill.
  • Milo M. Naeve, "The Best Likeness of George Washington by Edward Savage", Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1976), vol. LXX, no. 4, pp. 13-16, p. 15
  • Linda Ayres, Harvard Divided, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1976), pp. 91-92, cat. 44, ill.
  • Wendy C. Wick, George Washington, an American Icon: The Eighteenth-Century Graphic Portraits, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville, VA, 1982), p. 40, ill. p. 41
  • Thomas Fleming, First in Their Hearts, Walker and Company (New York, 1984), ill. p. 112
  • Sandra Grindlay, "Harvard's Portraits: An American Treasure", Harvard University Art Museums Review (Fall 1992), vol. II, no. 1, pp. 6-7, p. 6
  • John Caldwell, Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, and Dale T. Johnson, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume I: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815, ed. Kathleen Luhrs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press (New York, NY and Princeton, NJ, 1994), p. 160
  • Ellen G. Miles, American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C, 1995), p. 148, fig. 1
  • Ellen G. Miles, George and Martha Washington: Portraits from the Presidential Years, exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery (Charlottesville, VA, 1999), p. 22, ill.
  • Jane Turner, The Encyclopedia of American Art before 1914, Macmillan Publishers Limited (London, England, 2000), p. 451
  • Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life, Penguin Press (New York, 2010), p. 614
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), pp. 23, 427-28, cat. 390, ill.
  • Jennifer Germann, "'The Requisite Local Coloring:' Painting the Washington Family in London", American Art, Smithsonian Institution and The University of Chicago Press (Fall 2021), vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 26-37, p. 27

Exhibition History

  • George Washington Bicentennial Historical Loan Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 03/05/1932 - 12/24/1932
  • Portraits of original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 05/10/1935 - 06/09/1935
  • Washington Lafayette Franklin, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/22/1944 - 05/28/1944
  • Edward Savage, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, 01/04/1952 - 03/08/1952
  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Harvard Divided, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/03/1976 - 10/10/1976
  • George and Martha Washington, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 02/19/1999 - 08/09/1999
  • Reciprocal Loan: Harvard Law School Library, Caspersen Room, Harvard Law School Library, Cambridge, 09/15/2014 - 08/15/2015
  • Afterward: The Revolutionary Veterans Who Built America, American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, Yorktown, 06/10/2017 - 11/27/2017

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu