Portrait of George Washington (1732-1799)

Gilbert Stuart rapidly developed the confident and individualistic painterly style for which he remains so highly acclaimed today. In an era when many artists focused on the tedious replication of minute detail, the novelty of Stuart's loose, suggestive brushwork fired the imagination. More critically, he was extraordinarily skillful at capturing the essence of sitters' personalities, an especially elusive aspect of portraiture that every self-respecting practitioner aspired to master. Benjamin West, an exceptional painter himself, described Stuart's style succinctly by saying, "he nails the face to the canvas."
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