Mount Airy, Richmond County, Virginia. The Late Residence of Col. John Tayloe.
Dateca. 1829
Publisher
Pendleton's Lithography
MediumLithograph on wove paper
DimensionsOverall: 9 1/4 × 13 1/2in. (23.5 × 34.3cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number2010-84
DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "Pendleton's Lithography Boston./ MOUNT AIRY, RICHMOND COUNTY, VIRGINIA./ THE LATE RESIDENCE OF COL. JOHN TAYLOE."Label TextDespite the British trend to commission portraits of English country houses, very few American homes are the subject of prints or paintings. This lithograph of the late Col. John Tayloe’s Richmond County, Virginia, home Mount Airy is the only known depiction of the house, giving us a sense of what the structure looked like prior to the devastating fire in 1844 which gutted the property. Mount Airy was designed by John Ariss, a notable Virginia architect. The property was designed in Palladian architecture and had pleasure gardens, including an orangery. The estate also housed a stud farm for breeding horses and a horse-racing track. The home was built in 1764 for Colonel John Tayloe II (1721-1779), the father of Col. John Tayloe III (1770-1828), mentioned in the description of the print. Enslaving over a hundred people on their plantation at one time, the Tayloes were some of the richest men in Virginia, and this house helped to announce their gentry status.
Tayloe III died in 1828, and the family probably commissioned these prints to commemorate his death and distribute among family and friends. The Pendleton firm (1825-1836) ran by two brothers, William S and John B, was America’s first lithographic press. Pendleton probably used sketches made on the spot and supplied by the family.
ProvenanceBefore 2010, Cohen & Taliaferro LLC (New York, NY); 2010-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).
