GEORGES WASHINGTON PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY

GEORGES WASHINGTON

French, 1827 - 1901

BIOGRAPHY
Georges Washington was born out of wedlock in Marseille in September 1827. The pseudonym he adopted was given to him by his father, a great admirer of America’s first President. The artist began his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris with the history painter François Edouard Picot (1786-1868). However, he soon developed an interest in subjects from the Middle East and was strongly influenced by the work of Eugène Delacroix and Eugène Fromentin.

Washington traveled to Algeria and Morocco on several occasions — the first painting he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1857 was titled Plaine du Hoiina (Sahara Algérien). Two years later, he received great acclaim for his Salon entry titled Nomades dans le Sahara en Hiver, acquired by the Musée de Lille. The artist married the daughter, Anne-Léone, of the Orientalist painter Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1815-1884) in Paris in 1859, which only furthered his interest in painting subjects based on his travels in North Africa. He continued being a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon until 1901.

The artist also traveled to Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey for further inspiration and subject matter. Two racing subjects set in Chantilly and Vincennes were shown at the Salon in the 1860s. Washington also traveled to America, where he assisted his brother-in-law, Paul Dominque Philippoteaux (1846-1923), with his monumental panoramic cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg, unveiled in Philadelphia in 1886.

Upon the death of his father-in-law in 1884, Washington and his wife inherited an apartment in the Château des Brouillards in Montmartre (later occupied by Pierre Auguste Renoir). A sale of thirty of Washington’s paintings at Hôtel Drouot in 1884 was intended to assist in the purchase of a farm in Brittany. However, with the farm not proving to be a success, the artist continued to paint and exhibit his work at the Paris Salon, and also in Berlin, Brussels, and Madrid. He made another trip to American for further panorama commissions and, following the death of his wife, moved with his daughter and son-in-law to Douarnenez on the Brittany coast, where he died in November 1910 after a long and distinguished career.

Museum Collections
Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dunkerque
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Limoges
Musée Paul Valéry, Sète
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille

Mark Murray Fine Paintings is a New York gallery specializing in buying and selling 19th century and early 20th century artwork.

Please contact us if you are interested in selling your Georges Washington paintings or other artwork from the 19th century and early 20th century.