Most Americans can conjure up Washington's appearance thanks to the $1 bill and the classic Lansdowne Portrait. James Thomas Flexner, whose biographies of Washington were published in the 1960s and 70s, wrote an article titled "What Washington Really Looked Like" for the New York Times published on February 19, 1956. His piece featured some lesser known portraits of Washington done from life, which challenges the iconic images of Washington and humanizes him.
What I also find interesting is the Flexner story appeared 9 years prior to his first biography of Washington which was published in 1965. I'd like to think that writing this piece was part of what inspired Flexner!
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| Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections |
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| Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections |
To me the most striking portraits are those which show Washington in his latter, mature years. He was a legend and myth in his own time, and to me these show the burden this placed on him.
Rembrandt Peale, in 1795 at the age of 17, produced this painting of Washington.
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| Source: National Portrait Gallery |
The National Portrait Gallery includes a humorous anecdote:
In 1795, the Philadelphia artist Charles Willson Peale persuaded President George Washington to pose for his seventeen-year-old son Rembrandt, who wanted to paint the president’s portrait. Upon learning that Rembrandt was joined in the painting room by his father, his brother Raphaelle, and his Uncle James (all artists), Gilbert Stuart quipped that the president was in danger of being “Pealed all around.”
The NYT article shows a reproduction that Rembrandt produced 29 years later, which I find ironic since the article claims to show Washington's true likeness and yet one portrait included is a reproduction of an earlier painting!
Finally, here is the last live drawing of Washington.
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| Source: Museum of Fine Arts |
Finally, here is the last live drawing of Washington.
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| Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections |
The description from the Flexner NYT article:
George Washington was flesh and blood, and hopefully these portraits show he was human like all of us.This tragic image, by Charles de St. Memin, reveals the decline of a once heroic physique. Age 66.
