Washington raises his right arm in a classically inspired oratorical pose, while his left hand grasps a ceremonial sword. He wears an American made black velvet suit, one similar in fabric, cut, and color to one he frequently wore on public occasions. Instead, Stuart filled the eight-foot tall composition with elements symbolic to the new republic. In the Lansdowne Portrait, Washington does not hold a scepter, wear a crown, or sit on a throne. However, whereas previous artists such as John Trumbull and Charles Willson Peale emphasized Washington’s position as an officer in the Revolutionary Army, Stuart stressed Washington’s position as a civilian commander in chief. Given his European training, Stuart was well suited to execute a Grand Manner portrait of America’s first president. Washington (detail), Gilbert Stuart, Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington, 1796, oil on canvas, 96 × 60″ / 243.8 × 152.4 cm (National Portrait Gallery) The portrait was a gift from William Bingham, a wealthy Philadelphian merchant and was intended to thank Lord Lansdowne for his financial support of the colonial cause during the American Revolutionary War. The “Lansdowne Type” acquired its name from the owner of the first full-length portrait Stuart painted, William Petty, the first Marquis of Lansdowne. Stuart painted six full-length portraits of Washington. The “Vaughan Type” shows Washington facing slightly to his left, the “Athenaeum Type” shows the first president facing to his right, and the “Lansdowne Type” is a full-length portrait. In the decades immediately preceding the invention of photography, the myriad of portraits of Washington that Stuart painted created an image Americans accepted as the portrait of their first president. Stuart wasted little time in calling on Washington, and painted three different kinds of portraits of the president (with dozens of subsequent copies) in the years that followed. If painting images of George Washington was the primary reason Stuart returned to the United States, then Philadelphia was certainly the place to be. Stuart departed New York City for Philadelphia in November 1794. He painted Jay several times during the months that followed and the politician provided a letter of introduction for the relatively unknown artist to meet the president. Stuart arrived in New York City in early May of 1793, and a visit to Jay, one of the few people the painter could have known in Manhattan, must have been amongst Stuart’s first social calls. Stuart first met Jay in 1782 when the politician was in London negotiating the Treaty of Paris, the accord that officially ended the American Revolutionary War. Rather than return to Rhode Island, the state of his birth, he instead sailed for New York City, the home of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a close political confidant to George Washington. Stuart did not personally know the recently elected president, and the artist had been away from his homeland for 18 years. I calculate upon making a plurality of his portraits, whole lengths, what will enable me to realize and if I should be fortunate, I will repay my English and Irish creditors. There I expect to make a fortune by Washington alone. When I can net a sum sufficient to take me to America, I shall be off to my native soil. He clearly had aspirations of making American versions of European Grand Manner portraits such as the likeness Hyacinthe Rigaud painted of Louis XIV in 1701. After acquiring debts sufficient to necessitate a hasty departure from the Emerald Isle, the artist told a friend about his short-term plans for Ireland and about his anticipated return to the United States: Stuart remained in London for almost twelve years and then relocated to Ireland. On the brink of the American Revolutionary War, Stuart decided it was time to pursue serious artistic instruction, and so, in 1775, he sailed for London and the studio of Benjamin West, whose generosity to his colonial brethren was seemingly endless. Hyacinthe Rigaud, King Louis XIV, 1702, oil on canvas, 313 x 205 cm (Versailles) Reframing Art History, a new kind of textbook.With 503 contributors from 201 colleges, universities, museums, and researchĬenters, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures.
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