Lot 327: Joseph Alexander Ames (American, 1816-1872),

Joseph Alexander Ames (American, 1816-1872), "Portrait of General George Washington", oil on canvas, signed and dated "1862" lower right, 30 in. x 25 in., in an antique frame.

Provenance: Grogan & Company, Boston, July 25, 1995 Auction, Sale #66, Lot #295 Note: This very attractive painting by Joseph Ames is based on the portrait in the Cleveland Museum of Art by Joseph Wright (1756-1793), which in turn is based on Wright's drawing from life (for a miniature portrait) of the spring or summer of 1790. That original image was reproduced by Wright himself in a contemporaneous engraving; his print may be the indirect source for both the Cleveland canvas as well as for this version by Ames. The lower part of this canvas omits the buttons and buttonholes on both the General's waistcoat as well as his uniform coat, and the panels in both the Cleveland picture as well as this one are shown without their normal gold-braid stars, which is a somewhat unusual feature. This version is slightly larger than the Cleveland canvas, and gives the sitter a robust gravity and a colonistic vitality which are quite exceptional in the portraits of Washington. Reference: John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and their Replicas, Philadelphia, 1931, pp. 69-80, plates no. 6 (etching of 1790) and 7 (Cleveland Museum of Art, before 1815).