1. History through the Artists’ eyes: The Life of George Washington
Cheryl Metz, NBCT
Teaching American History Grant – Freedom Project
Rockford District #205
2012
Teacher Resources

2. How do you Read a painting?
Much the same as you would any primary source document – you use your observation skills to identify details, objects, hints of authors’ bias, and the big idea about the person or object represented that the painter wished to portray
Pose questions about the painting the same way you pose questions over text as a reader:
What is the artist’s purpose in painting the subject?
What objects are used to symbolize ideas about the artist’s story?
When looking at two different artistic interpretations of the same object, how are the representations similar? Different?
How does the setting (backdrop) add to the story of the subject painted?

3. Rehearsal: Reading A painting
Let’s look at an example together – Let’s take a trip to one of the most famous paintings of our beloved first President, George, and examine how historians view this painting. You will be able to read and/or listen to the interpretations of historians at…
Lansdowne Interactive Portrait
Smithsonian Institution

4. Task 1: You’re the historian
From the next several slides with portraits of George Washington, select the one that interests you most (or that your teacher assigns to you if working in groups), and use the graphic organizer handout to analyze elements of the picture in the same ways as you saw in the online model with the Lansdowne portrait. Remember, it’s your job to explain each minute detail so we might have some idea as to the time when the painting was done and its purpose for the time. What is George’s portrait trying to tell us?

5. Artist: Joseph Wright
Date: 1783 ?

6. Date: 1772
Artist: Charles
Willson
Peale ?

7. Date: 1787
Artist: Charles
Willson
Peale ?

8. Artist: Gilbert Stuart
Date: 1795
Artist: Gilbert Stuart ?

9. Date: 1790
Artist: John Ramage ?

10. Date: 1784
Artist: Charles
Willson
Peale ?

11. Date: 1787
Artist: Edward Savage ?

12. Date: 1789
Artist: Edward Savage ?

13. Date: 1780
Artist: John Trumbull ?

14. Date: 1795
Artist: Charles
Willson
Peale ?

15. Date: 1790
Artist: Joseph Wright ?

16. Date: 1780
Artist: Charles
Willson
Peale ?

17. Artist: Gilbert Stuart
Date: 1796
Artist: Gilbert Stuart ?

18. Date: 1790
Artist: Edward Savage ?

19. Date: 1787
Artist: Charles
Willson
Peale ?

20. Date:
Artist: John Trumbull ?

21. Finding the “Real” Washington
So now that you’ve analyzed at least one of the paintings, how do you decide how accurately the artist portrayed his subject? One way is to look at Washington’s life mask, a plaster cast taken by a French sculptor, Jean-Antoine Houdon, in Look on the next slide at this mask, then click on it to go to an interactive site with a short history of how the mask was used for other types of art based on George Washington.

22. Click on picture to go to interactive site

23. Task 2: Taking orders
Now that you’ve heard more background information from the other students in your class about each portrait, let’s see if you can help George put his life back in order!
Look at the next slide, and on your sequence sheet try to match the letter of the print with the correct date of its creation. When you are finished, the slide after will show you the correct sequence as you click on the slide.

24. A E I M B F J N C G K O D H L P

25. C I E D J A H F N L M G B P O K

26. Learn More?
To discover more about the life of Washington, click on the link below that contains an interactive timeline on his life:
Discover the Real George Washington: Views From Mount Vernon
For information including his papers and writing, click below:
George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress

27. John Trumbull: George Washington. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
John Trumbull: George Washington. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (May 2009)
 Charles Willson Peale: Washington, Lafayette and Tilghman at Yorktown.(1784) Maryland: State Archives.
Charles Willson Peale: George Washington New York: Historical Society.
John Ramage: George Washington. (1789) Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery.
John Trumbull: Declaration of Independence.
Gilbert Stuart: Self Portrait.
Thomas Jefferson Monticello. Joseph Wright.
John Ramage Miniature Desk

28. http://b-womeninamericanhistory18. blogspot
White House Artifacts: Bas-Relief of George Washington
Charles Willson Peale. George Washington in the Uniform of a British Colonial Colonel. Washington-Custis-Lee Collection, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA.
Portraits in Revolution.
His Excel: G: Washington Esq: L.L.D. Late commander in chief of the armies of the U.S. of America & president of the Convention of
The Frick Collection: George Washington (Vaughn collection of Stuart canvas)
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: George Washington. Charles Willson Peale. 1787
Discover the Real George Washington: New Views From Mount Vernon
George Washington: A National Treasure. Lansdowne Portrait Interactive. Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

29. Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
Born in 1741, C.W. Peale became one of the greatest portraitists of the Revolutionary Period and after. Having sought advice of the great Bostonian painter Copley, he was supported by several sponsors in Annapolis, who sent him to London in 1767 to study with the renowned painter, Benjamin West. After two years, he returned to paint portraits of many colonial leaders including Washington both as General and President. He served in the Revolution, and in 1802 displayed his many portraits at Independence Hall, establishing the first museum in the new United States of America.
Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
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30. Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
Born in 1741, C.W. Peale became one of the greatest portraitists of the Revolutionary Period and after. Having sought advice of the great Bostonian painter Copley, he was supported by several sponsors in Annapolis, who sent him to London in 1767 to study with the renowned painter, Benjamin West. After two years, he returned to paint portraits of many colonial leaders including Washington both as General and President. He served in the Revolution, and in 1802 displayed his many portraits at Independence Hall, establishing the first museum in the new United States of America.
Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
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31. Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
Born in 1741, C.W. Peale became one of the greatest portraitists of the Revolutionary Period and after. Having sought advice of the great Bostonian painter Copley, he was supported by several sponsors in Annapolis, who sent him to London in 1767 to study with the renowned painter, Benjamin West. After two years, he returned to paint portraits of many colonial leaders including Washington both as General and President. He served in the Revolution, and in 1802 displayed his many portraits at Independence Hall, establishing the first museum in the new United States of America.
Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
BACK

32. Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
Born in 1741, C.W. Peale became one of the greatest portraitists of the Revolutionary Period and after. Having sought advice of the great Bostonian painter Copley, he was supported by several sponsors in Annapolis, who sent him to London in 1767 to study with the renowned painter, Benjamin West. After two years, he returned to paint portraits of many colonial leaders including Washington both as General and President. He served in the Revolution, and in 1802 displayed his many portraits at Independence Hall, establishing the first museum in the new United States of America.
Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
BACK

33. Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
Born in 1741, C.W. Peale became one of the greatest portraitists of the Revolutionary Period and after. Having sought advice of the great Bostonian painter Copley, he was supported by several sponsors in Annapolis, who sent him to London in 1767 to study with the renowned painter, Benjamin West. After two years, he returned to paint portraits of many colonial leaders including Washington both as General and President. He served in the Revolution, and in 1802 displayed his many portraits at Independence Hall, establishing the first museum in the new United States of America.
Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
BACK

34. Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
Born in 1741, C.W. Peale became one of the greatest portraitists of the Revolutionary Period and after. Having sought advice of the great Bostonian painter Copley, he was supported by several sponsors in Annapolis, who sent him to London in 1767 to study with the renowned painter, Benjamin West. After two years, he returned to paint portraits of many colonial leaders including Washington both as General and President. He served in the Revolution, and in 1802 displayed his many portraits at Independence Hall, establishing the first museum in the new United States of America.
Charles Willson Peale, c. 1768
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35. John Ramage
Ramage was the first successful Irish painter in America, specializing in creating miniature portraits for which he also created the frames, using his skills as a goldsmith. He was a loyalist who joined with the British troops six months after the Battle of Bunker Hill. He painted many important Revolutionaries before leaving the country in 1996 for Canada in order to escape imprisonment for huge debts he had acquired.
Ramage’s work desk
Click to see movie
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36. Edward Savage
A silversmith and engraver prior to 1789, Edward began working as a portrait painter around He had the Washington family members sit for individual portraits in the winter of in New York City. He originally began a portrait engraved on a copperplate. He then left for London, where he studied under Benjamin West, the painter of Treaty at Shackamaxon 1682, the signing of the treaty between William Penn and Tamanend, chief of the Lenni Lenape. After his England stay, he returned to recreate the Washingtons in a group portrait, The Washington Family.
The Savage family, ca. 1779
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37. Edward Savage
A silversmith and engraver prior to 1789, Edward began working as a portrait painter around He had the Washington family members sit for individual portraits in the winter of in New York City. He originally began a portrait engraved on a copperplate. He then left for London, where he studied under Benjamin West, the painter of Treaty at Shackamaxon 1682, the signing of the treaty between William Penn and Tamanend, chief of the Lenni Lenape. After his England stay, he returned to recreate the Washingtons in a group portrait, The Washington Family.
The Savage family, ca. 1779
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38. Edward Savage
A silversmith and engraver prior to 1789, Edward began working as a portrait painter around He had the Washington family members sit for individual portraits in the winter of in New York City. He originally began a portrait engraved on a copperplate. He then left for London, where he studied under Benjamin West, the painter of Treaty at Shackamaxon 1682, the signing of the treaty between William Penn and Tamanend, chief of the Lenni Lenape. After his England stay, he returned to recreate the Washingtons in a group portrait, The Washington Family.
The Savage family, ca. 1779
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39. Gilbert Stuart
An American-born artist, Stuart began his career in the colonies, then left in 1775 for England, where he also studied under Benjamin West in London for nearly 18 years. Having money problems due to a lavish lifestyle, he was thrown in debtors prison, but was regularly visited by those of the upper class requesting their portraits from him. He returned to New York in 1793, then moved to Philadelphia in order to paint George Washington; his unfinished Athenaeum portrait of him is the one that adorns the $1 bill.
Self-portrait c. 1778
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40. Gilbert Stuart
An American-born artist, Stuart began his career in the colonies, then left in 1775 for England, where he also studied under Benjamin West in London for nearly 18 years. Having money problems due to a lavish lifestyle, he was thrown in debtors prison, but was regularly visited by those of the upper class requesting their portraits from him. He returned to New York in 1793, then moved to Philadelphia in order to paint George Washington; his unfinished Athenaeum portrait of him is the one that adorns the $1 bill.
Self-portrait c. 1778
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41. Portrait by Stuart Gilbert
John Trumbull
Trumbull, a colonel in the Continental Army and aide to Gen. Washington in the American Revolution, was one of the greatest of the painters of his time; four of his paintings hang in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. His passion for this artwork was summarized in a letter he wrote to Jefferson in 1789: "The greatest motive I had or have for engaging in or for continuing my pursuit of painting has been the wish of commemorating the great events of our country's
Back of $2 bill: Trumbull’s
Declaration of Independence
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42. Portrait by Stuart Gilbert
John Trumbull
Trumbull, a colonel in the Continental Army and aide to Gen. Washington in the American Revolution, was one of the greatest of the painters of his time; four of his paintings hang in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. His passion for this artwork was summarized in a letter he wrote to Jefferson in 1789: "The greatest motive I had or have for engaging in or for continuing my pursuit of painting has been the wish of commemorating the great events of our country's
Back of $2 bill: Trumbull’s
Declaration of Independence
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43. Joseph Wright
New Jersey-born, Wright’s artistic skills may have come from his sculptor mother, Patience Lovell Wright. However, he did study in England at the Royal Arts Academy, and later painted Franklin’s portrait in Paris, France. That connection later led to him being named the first Mint Engraver for the United States. In 1782 he returned to America, being one of only two artists to cast Washington in plaster. He created Washington’s portrait in several different mediums. Jefferson said of him, "I have no hesitation in pronouncing Wright's drawing to be a better likeness of the General than Peale’s.” (1795)
Self-portrait, c. 1780
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44. Joseph Wright
New Jersey-born, Wright’s artistic skills may have come from his sculptor mother, Patience Lovell Wright. However, he did study in England at the Royal Arts Academy, and later painted Franklin’s portrait in Paris, France. That connection later led to him being named the first Mint Engraver for the United States. In 1782 he returned to America, being one of only two artists to cast Washington in plaster. He created Washington’s portrait in several different mediums. Jefferson said of him, "I have no hesitation in pronouncing Wright's drawing to be a better likeness of the General than Peale’s.” (1795)
Self-portrait, c. 1780
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