George Washington

From a hitherto unpublished painting made by his physician, Dr. E. C. Dick

This portrait of George Washington by Elisha Cullen Dick appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly 1903, in connection with an article entitled "George Washington as Father" in which the anonymous author disabuses us of the notion that the "Father of Our Country", was not a father at all. 

Dr. Dick was a prominent physician in Alexandria and attended Washington on his deathbed. He was also an amateur painter. Another portrait of Washington by E. C. Dick also dated around 1799 belongs to Mount Vernon.

This portrait of George Washington was made in the late 1790s by Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick, an amateur artist who was one of three attending physicians the night the President died. Dr. Dick copied and adapted his portrait from a pastel portrait by James Sharples. As a visitor to Mount Vernon during Washington’s lifetime, Dr. Dick would have seen the James Sharples pastel of the President made from life in 1796 which was hung in the front parlor, and is now again at Mount Vernon (W-1962). Dr. Dick’s portrait resembles the numerous copies the Sharples family made, which unlike the original, are all oriented to the proper right. - Mount Vernon, Emuseum.

Portrait of Washington by James Sharpless,  c. 1796

Dick's c. 1797 portrait of  Washington came to light when The Century Magazine published a half-tone of it in 1904.

The Last Portrait of George Washington 

Painted in 1797 by Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick

After original painting owned by Judge James Alfred Pearce 

 

The Century Magazine,

Vol 67 No. 4 February 1904

"Midwinter Number" Page 606.