Lot 1157: Louis Maurer (1832-1932) Fine American and European Furniture, Silver, Folk and Decorative Arts and Clocks

Washington's Dream, 1857 Colored lithograph Published by Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) & James Merritt Ives (1824-1895), 152 Nassau Street, New York 20 7/8 x 15 3/4in (53.0 x 40cm)

53.0 x 40cm

: Stony Brook, NY, the Museums at Stony Brook; Chadds Ford, PA, the Brandywine River Museum; and Lexington, MA, the Museum of Our National Heritage, February 1999 - February 2000, George Washington: American Symbol, cat. no. C19.

The long-lived German-born Louis Maurer emigrated to the United States in 1851. In 1852, he began working for Currier and Ives, where he remained until 1860. In this 1857 lithograph, George Washington sits sleeping at a table with his Revolutionary War battle plans spread before him. An army encampment is visible through a door in the background. In his "dream," three allegorical figures symbolize prosperity, liberty, and justice on a globe labeled "America." It is possible that the artist is dreaming of American independence and the preservation of the Union at a time when the Civil War was making its dissolution a distinct possibility. See Harry T. Peters, Currier and Ives: Printmakers to the American People. 2 vols. New York, 1929-1931, p. 2061; Margaret Brown Klapthor and Howard Alexander Morrison, G. Washington: A Figure Upon the Stage, exhibition catalogue, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C., 1982, p. 58; and Gale Research Company, Currier and Ives: A Catalogue Raisonne 1834-1907. 2 vols. Detroit, 1984, no. 7070.