Portrait of George Washington

Portrait of George Washington

Gilbert Stuart

c. 1797

Gilbert Stuart’s iconic image of George Washington is familiar to many viewers as the face on the one-dollar bill. Stuart called it his ”hundred dollar bill” portrait, after the amount he charged for each replica. Stuart was praised for accurately capturing Washington’s distinctive appearance, even his unflattering mouth. ”When I painted him,” the artist said, ”he had just a set of false teeth inserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about the mouth and lower part of the face.” Stuart painted sixty copies of this portrait, which was in high demand following Washington’s death in 1799. This is the only Stuart replica of Washington still owned today by an organization that purchased it from the artist.

American Philosophical Society