Artist Gilbert Stuart’s portraits of George Washington

April 12, 1796

On this date, President George Washington posed for artist Gilbert Stuart for the famous Lansdowne portrait, the basis for two of the first chief executive’s portraits in the U.S. Capitol. Stuart was the foremost portrait painter in the United States at the time, and Washington posed for him for four separate portraits. The resulting paintings became the standard images of Washington.  Stuart’s Lansdowne likeness was successful, but not flawless. Washington’s grandson, George Washington Parke Custis claimed that the face “is incomparably the best likeness of the Chief…but in the person…has failed entirely.” When important sitters posed for the artist, great attention would be given to the individual’s face and  hands, but the body was most often based on a more readily available model.  Whomever Stuart used for Washington’s body was plumper and fleshier than Washington, according to his grandson. This discrepancy was remedied in the Munro-Lenox portrait, painted by Stuart in 1800.  An 1819 copy of the Lansdowne portrait by a Stuart follower hangs in the Rayburn Room in the Capitol.  The House’s version of the Munro-Lenox by John Vanderlyn was first hung in the Old House Chamber in 1834, and then in the current House Chamber in 1857. The setting for the image is almost identical to that in the Lansdowne, including furniture with decorative elements from the Great Seal of the United States.

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Cite

The Capitol’s copy of the Lansdowne George Washington by an unknown follower of Gilbert Stuart currently hangs in the Rayburn Room, in a space designed specifically for the large canvas when the room was constructed in 1962. This portrait was painted in 1818, and given by Richard Meade, a purchasing agent for the U.S. Navy living in Madrid, to the U.S. Embassy in that city. It remained in Madrid until 1951, when it was transferred by the State Department to the House of Representatives. George Washington, unknown artist (after Gilbert Stuart), oil on canvas, 1818 Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives