From the beginning, the Octagon was considered one of the city’s finest residences and hosted many luminaries of social and political Washington, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, and the Marquis de Lafayette. This Peter Waddell painting is a trompe l’oeil of an overmantle mirror. Reflected in the mirror is the dining room in the 1810s, a festive reception occurring. The room is decorated with window treatments, the Tayloe looking glass (mirror), and period chairs. Seen in the foreground is the back of the head of Archy Nash, the personal manservant of John Tayloe.
