Mrs. George Willig

Philippe Abraham Peticolas, Mrs. George Willig, 1804, watercolor on ivory, sight 1 ³⁄₄ x 2 ¹⁄₈ in. (4.3 x 5.5 cm) oval, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 1959.9.2

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Artwork Details

Title: Mrs. George Willig
Artist: Philippe Abraham Peticolas
Date: 1804
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sight 1 ³⁄₄ x 2 ¹⁄₈ in. (4.3 x 5.5 cm) oval
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund
Mediums: watercolor
Mediums Description: watercolor on ivory
Classifications: Painting
Miniature
Subjects: Portrait female — Willig, George, Mrs. — bust
Object Number: 1959.9.2
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1959.9.2

Artwork Description

George Willig (1764-1851) was a German expatriate who, arriving in Philadelphia in 1794, took over the first music publishing company in America. He published sheet music through the 1840s, and his son, George Jr., ran a Baltimore branch of the firm from 1829 to 1879. Given Peticolas’s serious interest in music, it seems appropriate that he would paint the music publisher’s wife.