Continuing on with my project of imitating some of the masters in painting, I tackled a painting called “General Washington on a White Charger.” The copy I have doesn’t attribute it to a particular painter, just “American School,” which is unhelpful.
I had to do some research on this, but the internet was very coy and not forthcoming on the topic. Nobody seemed willing to commit on what the American School was or who its painters were. I finally found one site that definitively attributed the painting to Nathaniel Currier, he of Currier and Ives fame. He lived from 1813 to 1888 and supposedly did this oil painting in 1845. His training was as a lithographer. Other tidbits: he served as a volunteer fireman in New York City, was a Unitarian, and a personal friend of P.T. Barnum (yes, the circus guy).
This was a really difficult painting! The original was oil, very detailed, and quite a bit larger in real life. My watercolor rendition is a lot messier. It looks better the farther away you are from it, but in case you want to get a better idea of the things I fudged on:
My purpose for copying paintings, however, was to learn as I go. I learned from this one that a lot of exquisite detail in a small space takes more talent than I’ve got. Having said that, I ended up being happy with the horse’s legs, his eye, and Washington’s pant leg. My Washington has a wry half-smile, as opposed to the more serious look in the original, but mine is rather more like an emoji face than I think is appropriate.
I’m going to give myself a little break and work on this painting by Joan Miro next week:
Maybe it will be a lot harder than I think.
Time to take off on the blog charger in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 