UMW Senior Uncovers ‘Mary Washington Mystery’ at Historic Preservation Internship
Natalie Froustet ’27 was organizing a portrait collection during her summer internship with Preservation Virginia when she made an amazing discovery. Hidden inside a closet at the John Marshall House in Richmond was a centuries-old painting of Mary Ball Washington.
Or so she thought.
“I learned that Mary Washington was never painted during her lifetime, so it was actually a portrait of George Washington’s face on his mother’s body,” said Froustet, a historic preservation and environmental science major and museum studies minor. “A relative commissioned the painting so he could sell it to make a lot of money.”
Will Glasco, Preservation Virginia’s chief executive officer, said the painting is “now known to be a forgery, yet it’s famous in its own right.” In fact, George Washington’s Mount Vernon had been searching for it for decades, so he and his colleagues arranged a transfer of the piece, noting that proceeds will help fund future initiatives for their collection. “We might not have made such a discovery without our paid interns and the support of the Chrisman Family Foundation.”
While Froustet’s find featured a fake Mary Washington – the painting was falsely attributed to 18th-century English artist Robert Edge Pine – she has had numerous real-world learning experiences through UMW’s Department of Historic Preservation, one of the nation’s top undergraduate programs in the field. She’s also grateful for the generous donors who’ve supported her education and professional pursuits.
Read more about UMW Senior’s Historic Preservation Internship.
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