Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1913-02-21

Every one" answers the public.
mot one," say experts In Washingtonla
The public secure In it's knowledge of the por
traits accepted portraying the features OF
Washington Is confident that 1t knows Washing
ton too we'll to make any mistake. The historians
knowing of what the public is ignorant, calmly
aver that not one American patriot In thousand
knows what the first president looked like In lie.
For the accepted picture Of Washington, the Ia
nous Stuart portrait which Has been handed
down through the generations IS being nfellke
representation of Washington lneaments, which
has been reproduced hundreds OF times. and from
which Americans have learned to know, or think
they know what he looked like has been exposed
and held up to criticism and branded as every
thing but resemblance Of George Washington
The public which for 10 years has looked upon
this face depicted In books. magazines, on flags,
everywhere that the face OF the father Of the
country has been reproduced never has seen
faithful representation OF what Washington
looked like in the flesh. Trusting little school
children, gazing upon the classic countenance
on the schoolroom wall have been basely de-
ceved. Washington did not look like that or
anything near 1t, 1t Is said.
This picture say tho researchers, is far re-
moved from the true Washington. The pubic,
they say doesn't know the father Of the country
and wouldn't recognize him 1. they met him face
to face the street.
The how and the whyfore Of this startling
nouncement comes through the disclosure of
real Washington, a portrait quite different from
the accepted one. This portrait, painted by the
great Washington painter, Stuart. in 1875, Is
declared to be the one .hat shows the man as he
really was. depicting his features and characters-
tics with the sternest fidelity and truthfulness,
and making likeness so true that it should
have been handed down through the ages
record of what Washington locked like. 1t was
accepted as such by Mrs. George Washington
and by the entire household at Mount Vernon.
Sv,%
family ought to know what Washington looked
like! But this portrait, the "frue Washington
is not the that the public has been led to
believe is George Washington
The commonly accepted portrait, the which
hangs in duplicate on the walls of every school
room in the land and which Americans conf
IDENTIFY point out as picture of the father Of
their country is quite another picture. 1t also
painted by Stuart in 1916, but the magic
bond that had made the painter and subject at
ease with each other was gone, and Stuart turned
from his work in disgust, declaring that the pic.
ture lacked the animation that characterized
Washington, and was never completed.
Yet this is the picture which has been accept
ed as absolutely correct Mrs Washington didn't
like it. but the public and Washington's old sol
diers liked it. 1t was their idea of what they
wanted their hero to looR like. Hence its rapid
growth into popularity, aud the practical eclipse
of the other portrait, declared to be the true
Washington.
Stuart 1t is we'll known made three great al
tempts to transfer the being of Washington to
canvas. The first was. SO the painter declared, a
failure because the confidence necessary be-
tween subject and artist was lacking. The sec
cad was success. Stuart learned that he could
get HIS famous sitter interested in talking
horse" and so he painted him as he really was
The third attempt resulted In the conventional
Household Washington" It lacked. said Mrs
Washington, truth. 1t lacked. said Stuart, the ami
nation characteristic OF the general. But It made
its way into popularity. Hence. say historians.
the public knows not the countrys own father.
Upwards of thirty oil paintings from life by