The Home of Washington
Not on view
Based on a painting at the Met (05.35), this print imagines George Washington enjoying life at Mount Vernon after the end of the American Revolutionary War. He stands on the patio talking with the Marquis de Lafayette who holds a copy of the "Pennsylvania Gazette." Seated at right are Martha Washington with her granddaughter Nellie Custis, and possibly Nellie's mother Eleanor Custis. At left, a grandson, George Washington Custis and a Black woman play with a toy cannon near two dogs. The scene must be set after the Siege of Yorktown, which ended the war when the British surrendered on October 17, 1781 and the Marquis's return to France two months later.