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Martha (Dandridge) Custis Washington
Accession number: 1857.3
This portrait of Martha Washington (1731–1802) is the work of Charles Willson Peale, who also painted the sitter several times earlier.
But those canvases do not survive. Thus she often is remembered
by the image displayed here, rendered in 1795. Martha Washington
then was age 64, the wife of the President, and near the end of
her life. We do not see the vivacious young woman whom George
Washington married and John Wollaston painted forty years
earlier.
According to one account, Charles Willson Peale met
President Washington at the market in Philadelphia and remarked
to him that he had just seen Mrs. Washington, who looked so well
that her portrait must again be painted. This image resulted
from that conversation. The glow that animates her face is the
focus of this painting, not the sitter's short stature or
rotundity that less observant contemporaries saw as predominant
features of her appearance.
Martha Dandridge was born in New Kent County. At age 18 she
had married a wealthy heir of the region, Daniel Parke Custis.
Soon she was busy as a mother caring for the couple's four
children, two of whom died in infancy. At her husband's death
eight years into their marriage, Martha Custis was suddenly an
eligible young heiress. At age 27 she selected George Washington
from a host of suitors.
George and Martha indulged her two young children—and after
their premature deaths, two of her grandchildren–in lieu of the
Washington offspring they never would produce.
George Washington's social ascent was not only financed with
her Custis fortune, but also took place with Martha by his side.
She even wintered with him at Valley Forge. She was everywhere
accepted as the respected wife of the renowned general and
President.
Visit the online exhibition, The Custis Family Papers: Saving an American Treasure.
It contains a sample of the documents in the Custis family papers at the VHS and describes the process of conserving them.
Image rights owned by the Virginia Historical Society. Do not use without permission. Rights and reproductions
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