Washington: watercolor on ivory in a rose-gold on silver locket. Martha: watercolor on ivory in a rose-gold over copper locket; reverse: Join’d by Friendship, Crown’d by Love. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
These private images of the couple were painted at Martha’s request on the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death.
In a land where horsemanship was often men’s touchiest point of pride, Jefferson had to admit he never saw Washington’s like for grace and control in the saddle. A froniter runner and Indian wrestler — his friend George Mercer described his frame as padded with well-developed muscles
— Washington had by 1774 refined mere energy down to a grace of least movement, the higher athleticism of the dance. And he danced well.