Perhaps that explains why, in spite of numerous portraits, each likeness of Washington has made him seem more unknowable rather than revealing intimate components of his persona.Ĭapturing an image of George Washington on a canvas may be as difficult as describing him as a man in full on the page. Never one to let his guard down, Washington resisted Stuart's attempts to get him to open up - he believed a man should be courteous to all but intimate with few. Based on Washington's facial features alone - his deep-set eyes and the broad upper nose - Stuart believed that Washington was "by nature a man of fierce and irritable disposition." While painting one of his famous portraits, Gilbert Stuart discovered that George Washington was a different man from the cool, calm and composed figure of his public persona. Gilbert Stuart's famous "Landsdowne portrait" of George Washington, painted in 1796.ĪP/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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