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Dimensions: 20 by 24 in. (50.8 by 61 cm)

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Provenance: John S. Miller

Harrison Earl (his brother-in-law)

George Brooke Miller (nephew of John S. Miller)

Maria Tevis Miller (his daughter)

By descent to the present owners, by 1995

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Exhibited: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Annual Exhibition (Special Exhibition), 1843, no. 4

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Annual Exhibition, 1860, no. 211 (as Washington Crossing the Monongahela)

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Notes: According to Wendy Greenhouse, "The change in the length of Washington's pole does argue for your painting being the original 'sketch for illustration' listed (no. 91, 1841) in Huntington's chronological 'Inventory of Effects and List of Pictures' at the National Academy of Design, for the change suggests that the painter was here working out his composition. If this is indeed Huntington's original, its size and finish correspond with the fact that, although a 'sketch' (in the sense that it was to be the basis for an engraving), it was also a work suitable (i.e., sufficiently finished) for exhibition; Huntington's Washington Crossing the Allegheny was exhibited at the summer special exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1843 (no. 4; owned by John S. Miller) and presumably again in 1860 (annual exhibition, no. 211), although the title there is given as Washington Crossing the Monongahela (a title nowhere else listed in Huntington's papers so evidently a corruption of the original) and the owner has changed to H. Earl. I am not disturbed by the fact that your painting is unsigned: Huntington was not consistent in signing his work in the early years of his career (as he himself once noted in a letter), and was less likely to do so in a work like Washington Crossing the Allegheny, intended for engraving."

There are a number of engravings of Huntington's Washington Crossing the Allegheny, including: The Gift: A Christmas, New Year, and Birthday Present (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1844), p. 278, inscribed Washington Crossing the Allegheny by D. Huntington engr by R.W. Dodson; Columbian Magazine 2 (November 1844), engraved by Denison Kimberly; The Gem for the Season for 1849: With Twenty Splendid Engravings (1849); Graham's Magazine 47 (August 1855).