William D. Washington - Biography

Biography

Washington was born in Clarke County, Virginia, the child of Perrin Washington and Hannah Fairfax Whiting, and was a descendant of Warner Washington, a first cousin of George Washington. His father secured a job with the United States Post Office in Washington, D.C., and his family moved to that town in 1834. The younger Washington began his own career at the Patent Office, working there for some years as a draughtsman. He studied painting with Emmanuel Leutze during his time in Washington, working with the elder painter between 1851 and 1852. He also pursued further study in Düsseldorf, also with Leutze. Eastman Johnson was in his second year at the Academy there when Washington arrived, and it has been speculated on the basis of style that the two may have worked together in some capacity, possibly going on trips along with Leutze, who traveled frequently. In any event, Washington's style is closer to Johnson's than to that of his teacher, although the exact nature of their relationship remains unclear.

While working at the Patent Office, in 1855, Washington drew an unauthorized copy of Emmanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware in colored crayon on the wall of a basement room in the building. The office messenger saw it and was preparing to whitewash over it when one of Washington's superiors, William Langdon, praised it; soon the Commissioner of the Patent Office took note, and brought President Franklin Pierce and his Secretary of the Interior, Robert McClelland, to view the picture. So impressed were they that the president returned on the following day, bringing with him his wife and another lady. What became of the picture is unknown, although it was recorded as having been still in place as late as October 1856.

Returning to the District in 1854, Washington remained there until 1861. He had some success as a painter of portraits and history paintings, and exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design and with the Washington Art Association. He served as a staff officer for brief stretches during the Civil War, under the command of John B. Floyd; while on duty he completed a number of sketches of mountain and battle scenes, some of which he would later translate into finished canvases. Ill health kept him in Richmond for the duration of the war, however, and it was during this time that he created two of his most important paintings, The Burial of Latané and Jackson Entering Winchester. He was in England between 1865 and 1866; returning to the United States, he settled in New York City, operating a studio there from 1866 until 1869. In July of the latter year, Washington accepted a teaching post at the Virginia Military Institute, where he would remain until his death some eighteen months later.