Exhibition Guide

This scene depicts Mount Vernon—the Virginia plantation house of the first American president, George Washington (1732–1799)—perched high on a mountain overlooking the Potomac River.

It is not known whether French artist Victor de Grailly ever visited the United States, but he produced several versions of this view of Mount Vernon, probably after a popular engraving made by English artist William Henry Bartlett (1809–1854). Here, de Grailly added a ninth pillar to the grand portico, inserted additional greenery, and changed low-lying clouds on the horizon into distant mountain peaks. The reproduction of a quintessentially American subject by European artists speaks to the global interest in Washington’s legacy in the 19th century.