Portraits of George

If you’re an American, you probably have a clear mental image of what George Washington looked like. But this was not the case at the beginning of the American Revolution. Few people had ever seen Washington’s likeness. Over the course of his service as commander and chief of the Continental Army and President of the United States, this changed, as George Washington evolved from a member of the Virginia elite and Patriot leader to an American icon. I’ve chosen a few of my favorite images of Washington from our new entry, George Washington as General by Stephen Brumwell, to illustrate how succeeding artists turned a man into a symbol. 

George Washington as a Colonel in the Virginia Regiment

Let’s start with what I would consider to be one of the most trustworthy portraits of George Washington, Charles Willson Peale’s George Washington as a Colonel in the Virginia Regiment (1772). This is the earliest known portrait of Washington, done from life when he was best known for his military service in the Seven Years’ War. Martha Washington commissioned it to hang opposite her own portrait at Mount Vernon (she had posed for hers with her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, in 1757). While clearly painted to be flattering—Peale de-aged Washington by a decade to pair with the younger portrait of his wife—Peale didn’t feel a need to mythologize or aggrandize Washington. 

George Washington, Esqr.

The print George Washington, Esqr. (1775) is probably how the British pictured George Washington at the start of the American Revolution. Which is funny, because it is a complete invention. The printmakers, more business savvy than they were particularly ethical, knew that the British public was eager to match a face with the name they were seeing in the newspapers. To beat the competition in producing a likeness of  Washington, the printers simply made one up based on artwork of other Seven Years’ War soldiers. When Washington first saw the picture, he wrote tongue-in-cheek to a friend complimenting the artist for making him a “formidable figure” and giving him “a sufficient portion of Terror in his Countenance.” 

Charles Willson Peale’s son, Rembrandt Peale, took up his father’s profession and made painting Washington somewhat of a cottage industry, creating more than seventy idealized portraits of George Washington, only one of which was from life. He didn’t believe that any portrait to date had successfully captured “how far [Washington’s] corporeal features corresponded with his acknowledged mental greatness,” and worked obsessively on producing the perfect heroic portrait. 

Peale had something to gain from producing the “perfect” portrait of Washington. A Russian diplomat to the United States wrote in 1813 that “every American considers it his sacred duty to have a likeness of Washington in his home, just as we have images of God’s saints.” The artist who produced the quintessential portrait of Washington would achieve renown and financial success.

Peale finally completed what he considered to be his “perfect representation” of Washington, George Washington, Patriae Pater (Father of our Country), in 1824, placing Washington in a classical setting that raised him to an icon of civic virtue. Peale toured heavily to promote the painting and produced at least 75 replicas over the years. The original was purchased by the U.S. Congress in 1832 and hangs in the Old Senate Chamber. 

Washington Before Yorktown

The portrait I chose as the featured image for our Washington as General entry is Rembrandt Peale’s Washington Before Yorktown (1824-1825), which was based on Patriae Pater. The life-sized painting showcased Washington in all his heroic glory. Peale gave Washington, who was forty-nine at Yorktown, the stoic, classical features of the older Washington portrayed in Patriae Pater. He hoped to convince Congress to hang it in the Capitol Rotunda, but that never happened. Peale’s heirs donated it to Mount Vernon, and it was eventually acquired by the National Gallery of Art.

Visual depictions of George Washington tell you about more than just what he looked like—it tells you about how the United States tells its history. To view these (and many more) images of Washington, check out our new entry, George Washington as General.