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Gilbert Stuart

Portrait of George Washington, ca. 1805

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Gilbert Stuart, 1755-1828, American

Title

Portrait of George Washington

Year

ca. 1805

Medium

Oil on panel

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • oil paint

Supports

  • wood

Dimensions

66.7 x 53.3 cm (26 1/4 x 21 inches)

Place

America

Type

  • Paintings

Credit

Public Subscription Fund

Object Number

22.220

Projects & Publications

Publications

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Making It In America

October 11, 2013 - February 9, 2014

Rhode Island native Gilbert Stuart painted several distinct portraits of George Washington from life. An unfinished head now known as the Athenaeum type, painted in Philadelphia in 1796, served as his prototype for numerous bust-length portraits of Washington that Stuart made in his Boston studio over the next 30 years. Stuart painted RISD’s variant for former Massachusetts senator Jonathan Mason. In it, he softened and rounded Washington’s face, simplified the black bow at the end of his queue, or braid, and loosely rendered his coat and shirt ruffle. In 1922, the Museum solicited public contributions to purchase the portrait from Mason’s descendants.

Romanticism and Revival

December 4, 1992 - June 26, 1993

18th and 19th-Century American Galleries

Charles Pendleton House

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Portrait of George Washington with the accession number of 22.220. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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