Ferdinand Richardt

In 1858, Ferdinand Richardt, a 19th-century Danish-American painter and lithographer, visited Mount Vernon. The following is an account of his visit as detailed in the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union's 1977 Annual Report. 

Early in May Dr. James Shebl, Associate Director of the Pacific Center for Western Studies in Stockton, California, in a letter to the Association offered for $5,000 an 1858 oil painting of the east front of Mount Vernon by Ferdinand Richardt....In 1858 Richardt visited Mount Vernon and prepared a series of detailed drawings of the Mansion and outbuildings. He also produced an oil of the Mansion with children playing on the east lawn and a servant carrying a tray of food from the kitchen along the south colonnade. This painting and the sketches are owned by the de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park and were reproduced with their permission in the 1958 Annual Report.