Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Life of George Washington the Soldier
1854
M. Knoedler; August Regnier; Lemercier; Junius Brutus Stearns
USA: New York, New York
Colored Lithograph on paper
sheet: 21-3/4"h x 26-3/4"w
Special Acquisitions Fund
79.75.1

Life of George Washington the Soldier colored lithograph; scene of George Washington on horseback; other figures in combat at Battle of Monongahela; colored in brown, blue, orange, yellow and white; beneath image reads "Painted by Stearns/ Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1854 by M. Knoedler and Co. in the District Court of the Southern District of New York/ Lith. by Regnier, Imp. by Lemercier, Paris/ Life of George Washington/ The Soldier/ During the whole of the bastle (sic) of Monongalhela Co. Washington behaved with the greatest/ courage 'By all the powerfull dispensation of Providence' Said he in a letter to his brother 'I have been/ protected beyond all human probability or expectation for I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me, yet I escaped unhurt, although death was levelling my companions on every side of me'/ Sparks, life of Washington/ Goupil and Co./ New York, London and Berlin"; with impressed mark of "Goupil and Co/ New-York, Paris, London & Berlin."

This print is one of a set of four illustrating the life of George Washington. The well-circulated prints, based on 1849 paintings by artist Junius Brutus Stearns, show Washington as a farmer, soldier, and citizen. In this one, Stearns depicts a young Washington fighting in the 1755 Battle of the Monongahela during the French and Indian War. Sellers offered the print in both New York and Paris.