Acute Triangle 1
- ACUTE TRIANGLE 1 - A black ink and gray color pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size vellum paper. It appears in the paperback, "Proteus".
Sometimes a painting is more than just an impressive and expensive work of art, sometimes it has a value not measured in dollars. In August, 1814 the portrait of George Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796, hung in the dining room of the White House. The War of 1812 was going on, the sound of canon fire could be heard from inside the White House, a British regiment was ascending on the district of Columbia . . .
The roads leading out of Washington, DC. Were filled with fleeing soldiers, citizens on carts filled with their belongings, and statesmen in coaches containing important papers, including the Declaration of Independence.
Back at the White House, Mr. Carroll, a friend of President Madison was begging Dolly Madison to leave, the British were only minutes away! Dolly had been directing the evacuation of the White House and just about everything of value was stacked on wagons ready to leave. But Dolly now stood in the dining room looking at the huge portrait of Washington. It would be an unbearable disgrace if it fell into the hands of the British, especially if they destroyed it.
She ordered the painting to be removed but the frame was screwed to the wall, it would take too long to unscrew. She ordered the men to destroy the frame and one of them ran out of the room and returned quickly with an axe. He whacked at the frame, breaking it apart. The canvas was removed, rolled up, wrapped in a cloth and placed in one of the wagons. Soon after their escape the British came and burned down the Capitol and the White House.
Dolly Madison risked her life, or perhaps being captured by the British, to rescue the painting. That full length portrait of George Washington now hangs in the East room of the present White House.
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