Lot 1151: Alexander Hay Ritchie (1822-1895) Fine American and European Furniture, Silver, Folk and Decorative Arts and Clocks

Washington and His Generals, 1856 Colored engraving Published by Emile Seitz, New York 23 3/4 x 35 7/8 in. (60.3 x 96.2cm)

60.3 x 96.2cm

: Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York, 1989, cat. no. 22.

Drawn and engraved by Alexander Hay Ritchie, this scene appears to be a fanciful view of George Washington's famous farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City. On December 4, 1783, before returning to private life after the close of the Revolutionary War and the evacuation of the British from New York, Washington said farewell to his officers in the "Long Room" of Fraunces Tavern and immediately left on a barge from Whitehall Ferry at the Battery in Lower Manhattan. Artist and engraver Alexander Hay Ritchie moved to the United States from his native Scotland in 1841, settling in New York where he successfully created engravings, mezzotints and etchings. See Mark Thistlewaite, The Image of George Washington: Studies in Mid-Nineteenth Century American History Painting, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1977, p. 300.