Object Record

Object name	Mezzotint
Title	General Washington
Artist or maker	Valentine Green (1739-1813)
Date	1781
Physical description	Portrait of George Washington, with servant and horse, posing on a bluff overlooking a naval battle. Both men wear uniforms of white waistcoat and breeches, black and brown riding boots, and a blue great coat with ornate gold trim. His servant wears a cloth headwrap or hat. On Washingtons coat are gold shoulder tassles. Washington holds in his proper right hand a tricorner hat and his sword in the same hand, pointed toward the ground like a cane. With his left hand he points out behind him to the scene below, and holds a rolled up parchment. The portrait has a dark and moody feel with a dark forground and his servant and horse shaded and blending in to both the forground and the smoke coming up from the embattled ships below. Only Washington stands bathed in a light glow. In the background to the left is a hill with a fort and further up, another structure and a flagpole with a fully raised striped flag. In the background to the right are three masted ships in the water, two of which are engulfed in smoke. In the frame, bottom center, is the depiction of a man sitting with his legs out towards his left, holding a shield with 3 dark stars at top and 2 dark horizontal stripes. He wears a short cloth at his waist, an ornate headress, a baubled necklace, and has large earlobes. He sits in a patch of grass near a shrub. A bow and a quiver of arrows sit at his feet. The shield is the Washington family crest. LEGEND: "Painted by J. Trumbull Esq of Connecticut 1780." "Engraved by V. Green, Mezzottinto-Engraver to his Majesty, & to the Elector Palatine." "General Washington" "Engrav'd from the Original Picture in the Profsefsion of M. De Neufville of Amsterdam." "Publish'd by Appointmt. of M. De Neufville, Janry 15th 1781, by V. Green, N. 29, Newman Street, Oxford Street, London." The John Trumbull (1756-1843) portrait of 1780 is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Catalogue number	1984.12.024
Collection name	Stanley Scott Collection
Credit line	Gift of Stanley D. Scott, 1984