Gilbert Stuart is best known for his painting–paintings in the plural, rather–of George Washington. He was a renowned portrait artist and when he painted a likeness of Washington, it was so widely desired that further copies were requested. Over the years he painted more than 130 portraits of the first president, each copied from the Athenaeum Portrait; but the original itself went unfinished and still managed to be the most famous of them all, ultimately making its way to what we all now know as the one-dollar bill.
Below are shown several more versions of this celebrated painting.
Gilbert Stuart was born on December 3, 1755 in Rhode Island.
