By the end of his presidency few artists had the chance to paint him from life. The president disliked posing for portraits. Stuart had painted Washington from life when he was still president. For this picture Sully copied the work of another artist, Gilbert Stuart. George Washington had been dead for more than 20 years. Usually the people in his pictures sat for him in person as he sketched even the young Queen Victoria of England. He completed more than 2000 pictures in his lifetime. Philadelphia artist Thomas Sully, which once owned the painting, made his living by painting portraits. Why would an artist copy someone else’s picture? For citizens of the young United States, George Washington’s presidency gave hope for a peaceful future after the turmoil of creating a nation.Ī ceremonial sword is a reminder of the president’s role as commander-in-chief.īooks, a quill pen in an ink well, and an open document symbolize the laws of the nation. A faint rainbow appears beside lingering dark clouds, the calm after a storm. The laws, the painting tells us, will last longer than the rule of one man in this new country.Įven the weather in the distant sky is symbolic. The pen, the books on the floor, and the paper on the table symbolize the laws of the new nation. But the quill pen standing in the silver inkwell on the table is most powerful here. The sword at Washington’s waist reminds us that he was a military leader. Would it be luxurious robes and crowns, like European kings and queens? Or the military uniform he wore as commander-in-chief? Washington chose a black suit to show that he was a different kind of leader an ordinary citizen elected by the people. As the first president of a modern democracy, Washington had to decide how such a leader should dress. The black velvet suit Washington wears is also symbolic. The furniture, decorated with national symbols like the eagle, was probably invented by the artist. Indeed, some things in the picture never existed. But many details are more important for the ideas they symbolize than as a record of history.
The furniture, decorated with national symbols like the eagle, probably never really existed.Īt first glance, this portrait seems to be a simple record of George Washington’s appearance. (detail) Thomas Sully, Portrait of George Washington (1732-1799),
Jean-Antoine Houdon had covered the president’s face with plaster to get an exact likeness. Hiram Powers based this sculpture on one made by a French artist. How would you describe Washington’s personality? This picture is a copy of one of those portraits. They were admired not just because they showed what he looked like, but because they gave a sense of his personality as well. Gilbert Stuart’s portraits of the first president became especially well known. He looks slightly different in all of them. Several painters had the chance to paint George Washington from life. Historians have found a few different stories about whose body is portrayed here! They might even ask a friend to pose for the body. The rest of the time they would work in their studios from memory or sketches. They would spend a session or two working on the face, and perhaps hands, of their subject.
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But professional artists did not usually paint with the person in front of them the whole time. In the days before cameras, people commonly called upon artists to create a “likeness” of themselves or someone they wanted to honor. His mouth is large and generally firmly closed.” Do you think the artist has successfully captured those details in this picture? “His face is long rather than broad, with high round cheekbones. He had “a large and straight nose,” wrote someone who knew him in 1760. Since there were no photographs in George Washington’s day, we cannot know exactly what he looked like. Is that what George Washington really looked like? How does an artist put all that in a picture? George Washington was more than a general and a politician. Many Americans of the day believed that the success of their new nation was due to the leadership of one man. The tense years after the war, when it seemed the states could not agree on anything, were history. Almost fifty years had passed since the first shot of independence was fired. Take a step back in time to the United States of America of the 1820s, when this picture was painted. What did you see that told you who he was? Perhaps you recognized the man in this picture the moment you saw it.
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