Evening by William Winstanley

As President, Washington knew that he played an important role in influencing the taste of the nation. His 1793 purchase of two scenes of the Hudson River by English artist William Winstanley established Washington as one of the earliest patrons of American landscape painting (a genre that would not become widely popular until the 1820s). Washington displayed these paintings in the executive residence in Philadelphia and, in his retirement, hung them on the walls of the New Room at Mount Vernon for visitors to enjoy.

Purchase, 1940 [W-1180]