Existing comment:
Letter from George Washington to Gilbert Stuart, April 11, 1796
Pennsylvania Senator William Bingham and his wife commissioned Gilbert Stuart to paint a portrait of George Washington in 1796. They presented the likeness to the Marquess of Lansdowne, who as prime minister had negotiated the end of the Revolutionary War. In this original letter, Washington asks where the artist would like to meet him. Stuart annotated the document in 1823, noting that the "Lansdowne" portrait, as it had come to be known, was "the only original painting I ever made of Washington except one I own myself... I painted a third, but rubbed it out."
Long-term loan to the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution |