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Presidents' Day
21 February 2022
Our past observances of this national holiday have not focused much on George Washington even though, officially, the holiday is Washington's Birthday. That's because a publication devoted to photography has little to work with in Washington's case.
Well, nothing to work with.
There was no photography in 1797 when this portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart. Washington has been named commander in chief of the Continental Army in 1775 and his portrait was popular. Stuart painted several based on an unfinished study of Washington done from life in 1796.
This particular canvas is at The Clark in Williamstown, Mass.
He was 41 when Washington sat for him. The unfinished study has become known as the Atheneum Portrait. Washington himself was 65 and would die three years later. This image inspired the engraving on the one dollar bill.
The Atheneum Portrait. Stuart's unfinished study from life.
Stuart painted the portraits of over 1,000 people, including the first six presidents.
Stuart himself owned the painting until his death in 1828 when it passed to his daughter Jane Stuart, one of 12 children born to Gilbert and his wife Charlotte. It was acquired by the Boston Athenaeum in 1831. In 1980 it was bought by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Portrait Gallery.
While we know where his portraits are, Stuart's remains have been lost. He died in debt, forcing the family to purchase an unmarked grave from a local carpenter. Ten years later, when there was money to move the body to the family cemetery in Newport, no one could find it and it was never moved.
He does provide one lesson for portrait photographers. John Adams described Stuart's method:
Speaking generally, no penance is like having one's picture done. You must sit in a constrained and unnatural position, which is a trial to the temper. But I should like to sit to Stuart from the first of January to the last of December, for he lets me do just what I please, and keeps me constantly amused by his conversation.