George Washington, an Orientalist from Provence
Born in Marseilles in 1827, this natural child owes the unusual choice of his name to the glorious fame of the first American president, whom his father had deeply admired. He received a classical education at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, alongside François-Edouard Picot, history painter, portraitist and author of numerous monumental decorations.
However, he quickly abandoned this approach, which was a little too restrictive for his taste. Following a first wave of painters eager to discover the Orient after the conquest of Algeria, Georges Washington embarked in Marseille for North Africa. This is how he found his main source of inspiration: a chivalrous orient that is reminiscent of the vigorous interpretations of Delacroix or Fromentin.
He participated in the Salon des Artistes français from 1857 onwards, very often with works of orientalist inspiration: fantasias, hunts, horsemen stopping in a wadi...
In 1859, he married Léonie, the daughter of the battle painter Félix Philipotteaux. He then stayed in Morocco at the end of the 1870s. In order to realize a large panorama of a battle scene with the painter Edouard Castres (1838-1902), he went to Turkey and the Caucasus for studies. The finished work was presented to the Tsar in Moscow in 1881 and George Washington made the trip for the occasion.
He ended his life in Brittany, in Douarnenez, which inspired so many painters but which he chose never to represent.