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National Portrait Gallery
Gilbert Stuart Portraits

On July 4, 1980, the two most important historical paintings ever to be acquired by the National Portrait Gallery will go on display. They are the Gilbert Stuart portraits of George and Martha Washington, painted in 1976 while the President and First Lady were in Philadelphia. Considered to be the most exact likenesses of the Washingtons ever committed to canvas, the two paintings are life portraits, and the one of George Washington is the only Stuart which can, with absolute certainty, be said to have been done in the living presence of the President.

Acquired from the Library of the Boston Athenaeum, which had owned them since 1831, the portraits are to be shared jointly with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. After cleaning, relining and reframing by the Gallery's Conservation Laboratory, they will be displayed here for a three-year period. Thereafter, they will go to the Boston Museum, changing location every three years.

The acquisition of the Washington portraits goes further than anything else to fulfill the Gallery's congressional mandate "for the exhibition and study of portraiture and statuary depicting men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States. . . ."

[[image - black & white image of bust of Martha Washington]]