Lot 1159: Auguste Regnier (1787-1860) after Junius Brutus Stearns (1810-1885) Fine American and European Furniture, Silver, Folk and Decorative Arts and Clocks

Life of George Washington: The Farmer, 1853 Colored lithograph Published by M. Knoedler, New York 17 7/8 x 23 3/4in (45.4 x 60.3cm)

45.4 x 60.3cm

Here Washington is depicted as a farmer, the occupation of most Americans at the time. He would come to be known as the American Cincinnatus, a reference to the ancient Roman hero, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, who, like Washington, gave up his weapons of war to return to farming. See Robert Harley, "George Washington Lived Here: Some Early Prints of Mount Vernon,"Part II (March, 1945), pp. 166-167; and Kennedy Galleries, A Nation is Born: An Exhibition of Fine, Rare and Interesting Prints, Drawings and Paintings of Major Issues and Events during the Span of Washington's Lifetime, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1954, no. 150.