Gilbert Stuart, George Washinton —Lansdowne Portrait (1796)

George Washinton —Lansdowne Portrait

Gilbert Stuart

Commissioned by Senator William Bingham of Pennsylvania and his wife, Anne, in 1796, the painting on the facing page was a gift to the former British prime minister William Petty FitzMaurice (the first Marquess of Lansdowne) in recognition of his brokering a lasting peace between Britain and America. In 2001, a foundation committed $30 million to create a permanent home for the painting in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

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Gilbert Stuart, George Washington—Lansdowne Portrait, 1796, oil on canvas, 8' × 5', National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/Art Resource, NY