Ernest C. Peixotto, born San Francisco, - Chadd's Ford - 1897 - T-Shirt

A fluted memorial column rises from a stepped plinth in this October 1897 pen and ink drawing, enclosed by an iron fence and set against a rustic wooden rail fence.

Visual Elements & Composition

The column dominates the sheet, its fluted shaft tapering toward the top edge. Below it, the pedestal carries an inscription, with the name LAFAYETTE legible across its face. A low iron fence of upright bars and pointed finials encloses the monument, and a finial post stands at the right edge. Behind it, several young trees and an open grassy field recede. Fine stippled hatching describes the stone and grass, warmed by a grey wash on a cream paper ground. The signature, E.C. Peixotto, the place name Chadd's Ford, and the date Oct 1897 sit in the lower right corner.

Meaning & Symbolism

The monument commemorates the Marquis de Lafayette, the French officer who served with the Continental Army and was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, fought near Chadds Ford in Pennsylvania. The iron enclosure and plain wooden fence present the site as a protected place of remembrance, where civic memory and rural landscape meet. Ernest Peixotto, an American painter and draughtsman, made a series of pen and ink topographical views of historic sites along the Brandywine in the late 1890s, and this drawing belongs to that group. The restrained treatment lets the column and its inscription carry the commemorative sense of the scene.

Wearing the Drawing

The artwork is built around a single vertical form, so it reads clearly across the chest, where the column can stand as the focal point. Its quiet, sepia-toned palette suits a tee worn as an everyday piece, and the stippled detail rewards a closer look at the stone, the fence and the signature in the corner.