The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-25
Familiar Pictures Of George Washington Not
 Faithful Repr Oducti0lls
President Misled By Artist : Whose Portrait Has Been
 Most Widely Copied

When an American v1sualizes George Washington's features, he sees the first President as he looks in the Gilbert Stuart portrait. The Stuart picture is Washington and Washing ton is in the Stuart picture. At an early date the portrait caught the public fancy, perhaps because the people saw in the picture their ideal of how Washington ought to have looked. When postage stamps were introduced here, the Government also helped perpetuate the vogue of the Stuart picture.
 There is contemporary evidence of George Washington show the fea- lures of the first President more faithfully. From time to time efforts have been made by historians and antiquarians to convince the Ameri can public that it ought to like the Trumbun picture, or some other picture, of Washington more than it does the Stuart picture, but all such efforts have failed, and are likely to fail.
 Strange to say, the first Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washing ton was never finished. Its history IS lO10 w. IanleT " "dSn1I- ton O1 New York city, descendant of one or George Washington's brothers, and i the representative of George Wash ington in the Society of the Cincin- nati.
 Washington did not like Stuart's personality, and declined to sit for him. says MT. Washington. "EBut he recognized StuartS great ability as an artist and Stuart, through a mediator, 1 secured WashingtOn's consent to sit for him and also to have his wife sit. Stuart had offered, as an inducement, to present the portraits to Washing | ton when they were finished. Stuart 1 finished the heads, but left unfinished l certain portions of the portraits, as i will be seen by the originals in Bos- ton, thus avoiding the delivery of the 1 portraits.
 Stuart used theSe unfinished orig inals for models from which he made scores of copies, which were sold l and which were term ed 'potIboi1ers.
 Stuarts daughter is said to have aid ed her father in painting many ot
 these portraits, Stuart painting the
 head and his daughter completing
 ne picture with her brush. After hel
 fathers death she also continued tc
 copy these portraits and sold them
 but her work is considerably below
 the quality of that of her father These 'pot-boiIers,' by the way | which Stuart is said to have sold a $10O each, are now worth from S1O,
 900 to S50,000 each. Most of then 1 are accounted for and are in tht l hands of collectors, while hundred
 of copies by other artists are in thu
 possession of private individual
 throughout tbe country, who believt
 they own the Stuart 'potLboilers.'
 'FWaShington was very much an
 noyed by the continued and freQuen
 requests of artists who came t
 America to paint his portrait, but h.
 was very generous in giving so mucI some of them at Mount Vernon as hi guests while they were painting.''
 The original unfinished Washing , ton portraits are in the Museum 0
 Fine Arts in Boston, but are tn property of the Boston Athenaeum . which acquired them about 1SS from the Washington Assocition O Boston, which with other subscriber . had bought them from the widow o Gilbert Stuart. MT. Washington refer , to the copies made by Stuart as 'tpot | boilers,'' but it is also on record tha , Stuart referred to the unfinishe 5 George Washington picture as hi t'nest egg'' and his hundred doIa f biE.''