1761 -1817 · American portrait, engraving and culture of the young Republic

Collective portrait, civic symbols, maps and family staging make Edward Savage an essential witness to George Washington's America.

Edward Savage was born in Princeton, Massachusetts, in 1761. First trained as a goldsmith, he turned to portraiture and gained decisive recognition when he painted George Washington in the late 1780s. He stayed in London, where he learned dotted engraving and prepared the distribution of his portraits to a wide audience. His major work, The Washington Family, was developed between 1789 and 1796 and then translated into prints. George and Martha Washington, their grandchildren, were developed between 1789 and 1796 and then translated into prints. George and Martha Washington, their grandchildren, a map of the future federal district and a enslaved black man identified as Christopher Sheels compose an image that was at once family-friendly, political and deeply linked to contradictions from the young Republic. Savage then opened galleries and museums in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, mixing portraits, curiosities, wax figures and visual shows. Artist, engraver and entrepreneur, he contributed to the birth of a public image culture in the United States. He died in Princeton in 1817. The "Edward Savage" selection notably compared The Washington Family. His reading favors drawing.

Savage makes the family portrait a national scene: the private gesture, the map and domestic service together reveal power and its contradictions.