#gilbert stuart

(Indianapolis Museum of Art)

Stuart wanted to paint Washington, for he expected that he could make a "fortune" on images of the Revolutionary War hero and American leader. At the time the president sat for Stuart, the artist apparently tried to relax his sitter, offering, "Now, sir, you must let me forget that you are General Washington and that I am Stuart, the painter," to which the president responded, “Mr. Stuart need never feel the need for forgetting who he is and who General Washington is.” After Stuart's initial portrait of Washington, he made more than one hundred copies for American and European patrons eager to own an image of the illustrious sitter. They were of three types: a waist-length Vaughan version showing the right side of Washington's face; an Athenaeum variant displaying the left side; and a full-length Landsdowne example. The artist promised to give Martha Washington the original canvas of the Athenaeum portrait used to make the copies but unfortunately never kept his word.

The Skater by Gilbert Stuart, 1782.

Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States

I'm so proud to be an American rn

Before his election, he fought in the French and Indian War, commanded troops to victory in the Revolutionary War, and presided over the Constitutional Convention. As president, he installed the Supreme Court, proclaimed neutrality in the war between Britain and France, and suppressed the tax protest known as the Whiskey Rebellion. After serving two terms, Washington declined to run again. In his farewell address, he told the nation, “The name of AMERICAN, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism.”

"This portrait, representing Revolutionary War hero General Horatio Gates (1728–1806), was painted long after he led his troops to victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Although his military career was turbulent, the English-born Gates is represented in the uniform of a brigadier general, decorated with the medal that Congress ordered struck to commemorate his triumph at Saratoga. In his hand is a copy of the Saratoga Convention. The painting descended in the family of Gates' good friend, Colonel Ebenezer Stevens. The work is a blend of Stuart's more painterly English style and the Copleyesque forthrightness that defined American high style."

Gilbert Stuart.