Great Uncle George

Elizabeth Fisher Washington, born in Siegfried’s Bridge, Northampton County. She first studied at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, and then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Hugh Breckenridge and Fred Wagner. She was a successful artist, winning the Cresson Traveling Scholarship, the Toppan Prize, and the Mary Smith Prize on two occasions. A noted miniaturist and portrait artist, she also painted Pennsylvania Impressionist landscapes of the counties surrounding Philadelphia. Washington was a member of the Philadelphia Plastics Club and exhibited from 1923-1927 with the group of Philadelphia-trained women artists known as The Eight. Her work was later exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery, the Carnegie Institute, the National Academy of Design, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and PAFA. In 1949 Newman Galleries held a retrospective. Aside from her artistic renown, one of the most interesting things about Elizabeth Fisher Washington is that she was the great-grandniece of George Washington.

By: Cynthia Beech Lawrence

Lot 332 Elizabeth Washington (1871-1953) oil on canvas Darby Creek in Winter.