Lot 1166: Alexander Hay Ritchie (1822-1895) after Daniel Huntington (1816-1906) Fine American and European Furniture, Silver, Folk and Decorative Arts and Clocks

Lady Washington's Reception, 1867 Colored engraving Published by Emile Seitz, New York 21 9/16 x 35 1/2in (54.7 x 90.2cm)

54.7 x 90.2cm

: Christie's New York, 25 September 1990, lot 136.

From 1850 to 1880, many American homes displayed very large, expensive engravings, often depicting scenes of America's earlier history. In this example, based on a painting created at the beginning of the Civil War, an idealized image of the post-Revolutionary War period and its society is shown. With Martha posed on a raised stage in an elegant interior, the artist presents the Washingtons almost as royalty within a highly romanticized reception that Martha held in May 1789, a month after her husband's first inauguration. Daniel Huntington, one of the most prolific artists in America in the middle of the nineteenth century, produced 1200 works of which 1000 were portraits. This engraving was produced by the print maker Alexander Hay Ritchie after Huntington's major painting The Republican Court (1861, The Brooklyn Museum). It includes more than 60 individual likenesses including Chief Justice John Jay, Vice PresidentJohn Adams, and Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. See Barbara J. Mitnick, The Changing Image of George Washington, (New York: Fraunces Tavern Museum, 1989), cat.no 46, fig. 30, p. 43.