The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-04-03
ID WAS BANNED eY STUART
A LOng-LOst Portrait OF washington
Found I'm q HistOric Tavern.

A hitherto unknown portrait of Wash
ington, painted by Gilbert Charles Stuart,
the most famous of American portrait
artists, has recently been unearthed in the
Black Horse inn, in Delaware county,
Pennsylvania. an historic tavern which
dates back to at least quarter of a cen
fury before the revolution.
The Black Horse is about a mile and a
half west of Media on the old post road
to Baltimore, down which the American
army marched to the battle of Brandy
wine in September, 1777, and at the june
ton of the Chester road, along which q
number of the continental soldiers re-
treated after that Inflated battle was
over. II is a solid little house, built OF the
gray country gneiss, with an old fashion
ed taproom in the east end. Before the
door stands a fiagpole topped by a black
horse that turns with every breeze. Ira
dition says that both Washington and
Lafayette stopped there day or two he
fore the battle at Chadds Ford, and the
room where the Father of His Country
slept is still pointed out to visitors. Mine
host of the Black Horse for a number of
years was the late Edgar G. Lyons, at
one time sergeant-at-arms of the state
senate, and whose ancestors had been
landlords there for nearly a century.
The portrait of Washington, which has
long had a local reputation, but which
capped the observation of the outside
world, hangs in the little west parlor of
the inn. 1t shows merely the head of
Washington, and it's general aspect is
very much like the famous "Athenaeum"
portrait, although cruder than the crown
ing work of Stuart's artistic career.
Where the portrait came from is mn
known. 1t has been in the family of Mr.,
Lyons wife for many years. Several ex-
perts who have examined it recently have
declared 1t to be a genuine Stuart, and
say that it is worth at the very lowest es-
innate fully $4,000. It is not signed, but it
has always been known that Stuart signed
very few of his works.
True Mark.
One indication which is said by experts
to be a true mark Of the genuine origin
of the portrait is the fact that 1t is paint
ed upon bed ticking. An examination of
the back of the picture shows the blue
and white stripes of the homely material
so well known to housewives. Stuart was
in the habit of painting copies of his work
to please himself, or simply as a matter
of practice, and upon such occasions he
very frequently used bed ticking instead
of canvas, as a number of his portraits
of notable Americans show.
1t is very probable that the Black Horse
portrait is one of the lost five copies
which Stuart is said to have made of the
first likeness of Washington he ever
painted. 1t was in 1884 that the great
portraitist, after several years spent In
perfecting himself in the studio of Benz
jamin West, in London, came to- Phila-
delphia with letter of Introduction to
President Washington, and in the follow
ing year he secured the sittings which
resulted in his first portrait of the great
man. Although this is said to have been
the best likeness of Washington ever Sc
cured, and much superior to the fam
Gus subsequent works, Stuart was dissat-
isfied with it, and believed by all his biog-
raphers to have destroyed it.
Rembrandt Peale says, however, that
before it was destroyed Stuart made five
copies of it, probably for the purpose of
exercising his hand and eye in reproduc-
ing the lineaments of Washington. These
copies have never been discovered, and it
is highly probable that the Black Horse
portrait is one of them 1t bears upon
the face of 1t all the marks of being a
copy, although possessing all the distinc-
tive traits of fine fiesh-coloring and at
tention to facial detail that characterize
all of Stuart's work.
If this is one of the lost five copies its
value is immense, as these copies are be-
lieved to have been more perfect like
nesses of Washington as he was when
president than either the "Athenaeum"
head now in Boston, or the full-length
picture painted for the marquis of Lans-
downe when Stuart's fame was greater.