Philadelphia Best

Facts : 1 New York and Philadelphia Leaving numerous unfinished paintings behind, Stuart ended his 18-year stay in the British Isles in 1793, returning to the United States to settle briefly in New York City
Facts : 2 In 1795 he moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, near (and now part of) Philadelphia, where he opened a studio
Facts : 3 It was here that he would gain not only a foothold in the art world, but lasting fame with pictures of many important Americans of the day
Facts : 4 Brooklyn Museum Gilbert Stuart s unfinished 1796 painting of George Washington, also known as The Athenaeum, is his most celebrated and famous work
Facts : 5 Stuart painted George Washington in a series of iconic portraits, each of them leading in turn to a demand for copies and keeping Stuart busy and highly paid for years
Facts : 6 The most famous and celebrated of these likenesses, known as The Athenaeum, is currently portrayed on the United States one dollar bill
Facts : 7 Stuart, along with his daughters, painted a total of 130 reproductions of The Athenaeum
Facts : 8 However, Stuart never completed the original version; after finishing Washington s face, the artist kept the original version to make the copies
Facts : 9 He sold up to 70 of his reproductions for a price of US $ 100 each, but the original portrait was left unfinished at the time of Stuart s death in 1828
Facts : 10 The painting was jointly purchased by the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1980, and in late 2014 was on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C
Facts : 11 Another celebrated image of Washington is the Lansdowne portrait, a large portrait with one version hanging in the East Room of the White House
Facts : 12 During the burning of Washington by British troops in the War of 1812, this painting was saved through the intervention of First Lady Dolley Madison and Paul Jennings, one of President James Madison s slaves
Facts : 13 Four versions of the portrait are attributed to Stuart, and additional copies were painted by other artists for display in U.S

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