Existing comment:
George Washington's letter to Gilbert Stuart, April 11, 1796:
In this letter, George Washington arranged a sitting for the full-length portrait known as the "Lansdowne" portrait, now in the Portrait Gallery's collection. The painting was commissioned by American senator William Bingham as a gift to the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Englishman who had supported peace with the American colonies at the end of the Revolutionary War. Washington notes to artist Gilbert Stuart that he is "under promise to Mrs. Bingham to set [sit] for you tomorrow," and asks if the sittings would be at Stuart's Philadelphia house or at the State House (Independence Hall).
Stuart later added that this was one of three life portraits that he had painted of Washington. Two of these -- the "Lansdowne" and the "Athenaeum" -- belong to the National Portrait Gallery. Stuart painted a third, earlier, portrait of Washington in 1795, but, as he notes here, he had "rubbed it out."
Lent by the Earl of Rosebery |