View of the City of Washington from the Virginia Shore

A quiet, pastoral landscape of 19th century Washington, D.C., this painting by William MacLeod shows an artist, perhaps MacLeod himself, sitting in the foreground, sketching the panoramic view in front of him. Farm land stretches out over most of the canvas with the expanding city of Washington pinpointing the horizon. The city is distinguished by the Potomac River just below the horizon line and the small markings of the Capitol, the Navy Yard, and the Smithsonian Institution Building. To the left, grouped together, are the incomplete Washington Monument, the Treasury Building and the White House. This is an early work of American artist MacLeod, who would go on to be the first curator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.