Show TIANA J perhaps one reason w why h y tho the athenaeum portraits of george and martha washington are unfinished la Is because stuart concentrated his attention on faces and never cared to spend much time on backgrounds for his paintings 1 I copy the works of god 11 lie he once declared and leavo leave clothes to tailors and mantua makers dr S spooner the gossipy author of curiosities of art a book published about tho the middle of the last century says that stuart used to express his c contempt for fine finishing of the extremities or rich and elegant accessories which he used to say was work for girls 11 perhaps he meant more specifically his daughter jane who aped helped him make copies of his original paintings and who probably put the finishing touches on the lansdowne Lans downa port portrait rait in which according to one au authority thorl t Y the arm and hand were painted from a wax model of stuarts own hand and his board ing house keeper a man named smith posed for the body and legs further evidence of stuarts inability to do more than the face of a portrait is the remark of one of his fellow students in london that as to the figure he could not get below the fifth button of the coat among the many painters wh who 0 made portraits of washington were the peales charles willson peale his brother james and his two sons rembrandt and raphael peale one day while washington was sitting for all four of them stuart appeared on the scene but left immediately As he come came out of the studio he met martha washington and remarked to her that her husband was being peeled all around this pun has been attributed tri buted to washington but it is more likely that stuart was the man for he deliberately cultivated 6 a reputation as a wit and it sounds more like him than it does george washington washingto ns eyes were gray but in making the vaughan ovaughan portrait stuart painted the them m blue because as he said lie he could not get a gray color that would be perman permanent ent and he felt justia I 1 V 3 P 31 ak NR copy of the Athene aum auni portrait of martha washington fled in the substitution because he was painting an immortal character when it was suggested to him that he had made the eyes too blue he answered they will be just right in a hundred years after stuart had painted washington the first time he told his friend isaac weld who wrote wroth travels in america that there were features in the presidents face totally different fro from n those he had observed in any other man the sockets for the eyes for instance were larger than what I 1 ever met with before and the upper part of the nose bacad er he said all his features were indicative of the strongest and most ungovernable passions I 1 and had he been born in the forests it Is my opinion that he would have been the fiercest man among the savage tribes stuarts opinion of strong and most ungovernable passions thus expressed had an interesting alt aftermath ul rn a in here is the story as told by his daughter jane while talking one day with general lee my father happened to remark that washington had a tremendous temper but held it under wonderful control general lee breakfasted with the president and mrs washington a few days afterwards 1 I saw your portrait the other day said the general but stuart says you have a tremendous tern temper per upon my word sold said mrs washington coloring mr stuart takes a great deal upon himself to make such a remark jernark but stay my dear lady said general lee he added that the president had it under wonderful control with something like a smile smil general washington remarked remarked lie he is 1 11 |