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Show J .'. The Nation's Greatest Son M Jp n: g?sr ' ' ; :-$$k V-:'fe Mtw lHiiil": - v- This portrait of George Washington, highly prized possession ot Marshall Solberg, Chicago, i claimed by him to have been painted It Gilbert Stuart. It bears the year 1794, and is signed by the master in an inconspicuous way. Some have thought that the earliest "Stuart Washington" was painted in 1795, but such is not the case, for John Jay gave Gilbert Stuart a letter to Washington which Stuart delivered while congress was in session in the year 1794 and Stuart refers to this in correspondence with relatives. It was then that one of the three sittings occurred. There were many portraits of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart, but there were only three sittings, so that many of the portraits were copied by Stuart from either completed piclures or sketches. It was, of course, not entirely unusual for great painters to make preliminary sketches of their subjects, although they did on many occasions entirely complete their paintings at sittings. This latter procedure was followed, it is thought, by Gilbert Stuart in this portrait. If this is so, it stands unique among the "Stuart Washingtons." According to a volume in Mr. Solberg's library, Gilbert Stuart admired this picture so much that he retained it himself and would not part with it for many years thereafter. When it landed in the hands of Congressman Gilbert of western New York he loved it so much that he asked that it might be the last object for him to gaze upon in this life. |