Description
Book SynopsisBased on careful study of Washington's personal diaries and correspondence and on the lively accounts of visitors to his estate, this richly illustrated book introduces a George Washington unfamiliar to many readers-an avid art collector, amateur architect, and leading landscape designer of his time.
Trade ReviewA comprehensive and well-illustrated history of Washington's estate. -- Jay Strafford Richmond Times-Dispatch Manca convincingly argues that George Washington, the 'indispensable man,' was indispensable to American art, too. -- Bob Duggan Big Think.com George Washington's Eye not only sheds light on the first president's keen interest in architecture, landscape gardening, and art collecting but also illuminates his learning process... Those who seek to understand Washington by exploring Mount Vernon will find this book informative and fascinating. -- Stuart Leibiger Journal of American History More inclusive than any previous study of Mount Vernon's architecture, decorative arts, or immediate landscape, [ George Washington's Eye] looks at the physical evidence as well as Washington's writings about art and taste... The book is, therefore, a comprehensive study of Washington's aesthetic choices, from their origins to the objects in which they resulted. While other scholars have catalogued the paintings in Mount Vernon, for example, Manca goes further to consider why Washington hung certain pictures in particular rooms or chose not to display others at all. -- Lydia Mattice Brandt Common-Place This work makes many key contributions to the study of Washington's life and activities. -- Emily Cooperman Winterthur Portfolio
Table of ContentsPreface
1. George Washington: Morality and the Crafting of Self
2. The Mansion House at Mount Vernon and Other Architectural Designs
3. George Washington's Portico
4. Washington as Gardener: Creating the Landscape
5. Mount Vernon and British Gardening
6. Prospects, Pictures, and the Picturesque
7. Washington as Artist, Critic, Patron, and Collector
8. Under His Vine and Fig Tree
Biblical and Classical Perfection at Mount Vernon
Epilogue
Notes
Index
