Description:
"Athenaeum Portrait" type. Portrait bust showing left side of the face, high collar, black coat, white neck-cloth, and face jabot. White hair. Red curtains in left background.
Label Text:
Stuart turned a few live sessions with George Washington into an enterprise, producing more than one hundred portraits. He created three portrait types for an elite public that desired representation of the republic’s first president and revolutionary war hero. About sixty likenesses, including this one, are based on Stuart’s “Athenaeum” portrait type. The sitter’s costume and the background vary slightly in each.
Washington’s face became well known through copies of Stuart’s works. Reproduced in a range of media—from paintings and prints to the dollar bill and sculpted public monuments—the images made him a symbol of the republic’s founding.
Lisa Crossman, 2020
Tags:
men; portraits; historical figures Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1956.91 |
