Apotheosis of Washington
John James Barralet Irish
After Gilbert Stuart American
Not on view
Barralet’s popular image includes a depiction of the president based on works by the famed portraitist Gilbert Stuart. Washington rises from his tomb on a heavenly ray of light with the help of figures representing Genius and Immortality, while Faith, Hope, and Charity look on. America is personified both as Lady Liberty, seated atop armor and holding a staff on whose tip rests a liberty cap, and as a Native American man with braided hair and a headdress, quiver, and tomahawk. Hunched over in mourning and guarding Washington’s sarcophagus, they resemble images of sleeping soldiers at Christ’s tomb.
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