Apotheosis of Washington

Apotheosis of Washington

John James Barralet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.