Charles V. Bond, (Illinois/Michigan, born 1825) after Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828)

George Washington, Lansdowne Portrait, inscribed verso "Washington / Painted by C. Bond / for S. L. Rood / 1856", oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.; reproduction gilt wood frame, 27-1/2 x 21-1/2 in.

Charles V. Bond was born in Rutland, Vermont in 1825 or 1826 but relocated to Detroit, Michigan with his family sometime prior to 1840. Self-taught, an 1840 account of a visit to his studio attests to his "precocious genius in portrait painting" at the age of fifteen and Detroit supporters of the young artist, impressed by his ability, reportedly raised enough money to send him to Italy for formal studies. One of his first patrons was S. L. Rood, local bookseller and publisher of the Gazetteer of Michigan. Returning from his European studies, Bond was in Boston during 1844-1845, and again in 1848-1850. While noted primarily as a portraitist, Bond is known to have tried his hand at scenes of mythology, allegory, genre, landscape and still life. Bond moved to Chicago in 1855 and apparently ventured to Milwaukee the following year, probably at the urging of S. L. Rood, who had relocated there a decade earlier. This 1856 work, derived from Gilbert Stuart's Lansdowne portrait of Washington, may have been a commission or was perhaps painted as a gift in recognition of Rood's longtime friendship and support. Bond was back in Chicago during 1857-1858, and  is last recorded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1864.