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Martha Washington (Martha Dandridge Custis)
Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828)
1796
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
121.92 x 94.3 cm (48 x 37 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
William Francis Warden Fund, John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, Commonwealth Cultural Preservation Trust. Jointly owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.
Accession Number1980.2
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CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsPaintings
At the time Gilbert Stuart painted the portraits of Martha and GeorgeWashington [1980.1], he was the foremost portraitist in the United States. He was, in effect, the unofficial painter to the new nation. He portrayed many leading political figures and wealthy citizens, and his sitters also included James Monroe, James Madison, and John Adams [1999.590]. Born in Rhode Island, Stuart had studied with Benjamin West in London, developed a fluid painting style based on contemporary English portraiture, and then successfully competed for commissions with British artists. He returned to the United States in 1792 and established studios in both Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He also worked in New York before permanently settling in Boston in 1805.
This most famous image of Martha Washington (1731–1802) was commissioned by her from Stuart along with its pendant of George Washington shortly before the president retired from public service to return with his wife to their plantation at Mount Vernon. The portraits were painted in Germantown, just outside of Philadelphia, in 1796. Mrs. Washington was sixty-five years old when Stuart painted her; she appears in a modest lace cap that speaks to her preference for the resumption of a quiet life rather than one filled with elaborate occasions of state. Stuart never finished or delivered the paintings, making use of his likeness of the president to create numerous replicas. Martha Washington, despite traditional reports that she did not care for Stuart’s depiction of her husband, tried repeatedly to acquire them, to no avail. Stuart’s representation of George Washington provided the source for his image on U.S. dollar bill; his depiction of Martha was also once used on currency—her face appeared on the $1 silver certificate in 1886.
Frames for both Washington portraits were made by John Doggett, a cabinetmaker, frame maker, picture dealer, and entrepreneur, when the Boston Athenaeum purchased them from Stuart’s estate in 1831. Doggett also owned and framed Thomas Sully’s gigantic Passage of the Delaware [03.1079].
This text was adapted and expanded by Erica E. Hirshler from Elliot Bostwick Davis et al., American Painting[http://www.mfashop.com/9020398034.html], MFA Highlights (Boston: MFA Publications, 2003).
This most famous image of Martha Washington (1731–1802) was commissioned by her from Stuart along with its pendant of George Washington shortly before the president retired from public service to return with his wife to their plantation at Mount Vernon. The portraits were painted in Germantown, just outside of Philadelphia, in 1796. Mrs. Washington was sixty-five years old when Stuart painted her; she appears in a modest lace cap that speaks to her preference for the resumption of a quiet life rather than one filled with elaborate occasions of state. Stuart never finished or delivered the paintings, making use of his likeness of the president to create numerous replicas. Martha Washington, despite traditional reports that she did not care for Stuart’s depiction of her husband, tried repeatedly to acquire them, to no avail. Stuart’s representation of George Washington provided the source for his image on U.S. dollar bill; his depiction of Martha was also once used on currency—her face appeared on the $1 silver certificate in 1886.
Frames for both Washington portraits were made by John Doggett, a cabinetmaker, frame maker, picture dealer, and entrepreneur, when the Boston Athenaeum purchased them from Stuart’s estate in 1831. Doggett also owned and framed Thomas Sully’s gigantic Passage of the Delaware [03.1079].
This text was adapted and expanded by Erica E. Hirshler from Elliot Bostwick Davis et al., American Painting[http://www.mfashop.com/9020398034.html], MFA Highlights (Boston: MFA Publications, 2003).
Provenance1828, upon the artist’s death, by inheritance to his widow, Charlotte Stuart (b. 1768 – d. 1845) and his daughter, Jane Stuart (b. 1812 – d. 1888); 1831, sold by Charlotte and Jane Stuart to the Boston Athenaeum (no. Ath. 2) [see note 1]; 1980, sold by the Athenaeum to the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. and the MFA. (Accession Date: March 19, 1980)
NOTES:
[1] For a full account of the sale, see Mabel Munson Swan, The Athenaeum Gallery 1827 -- 1873 (Boston, 1940), pp. 74 - 84. Stuart’s portraits of George and Martha Washington were deposited at the MFA in 1876.
NOTES:
[1] For a full account of the sale, see Mabel Munson Swan, The Athenaeum Gallery 1827 -- 1873 (Boston, 1940), pp. 74 - 84. Stuart’s portraits of George and Martha Washington were deposited at the MFA in 1876.