Mrs. George Willig

Philippe Abraham Peticolas, Mrs. George Willig, 1804, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 1959.9.2
Copied Philippe Abraham Peticolas, Mrs. George Willig, 1804, watercolor on ivory, sight 1 342 18 in. (4.35.5 cm) oval, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 1959.9.2
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Mrs. George Willig
Date
1804
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sight 1 342 18 in. (4.35.5 cm) oval
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund
Mediums
Mediums Description
watercolor on ivory
Classifications
Keywords
  • Portrait female — Willig, George, Mrs. — bust
Object Number
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.