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RESPONDING TO a near-constant flow of requests, George and
Martha Washington sat for about two dozen portraits from
1789 to 1797, collected here in this elegantly illustrated
volume. From miniatures executed on ivory for family and
friends to a historical portrait that depicts Washington
during the Revolution, the ../images vary widely in
treatment and setting. What they all reflect, Ellen Miles
suggests, is the great need the new republic had for
portraits of its first chief executive, often to stand in
for Washington himself. In the portraits, Martha Washington
is usually dressed plainly, her round face composed in a
benign but cheerful expression. Portraits of George
Washington often show him in military uniform, the pin of
the Society of the Cincinnati on his lapel; others have him
in black velvet, wearing a simple ruffled white shirt, his
hair tied back in a queue. Most observers agreed that Martha
was short and pleasant-looking, and that George was nearly
six feet tall, had a long nose, large and penetrating light
eyes, and a noble forehead. The state of his teeth affects
his appearance in some portraits.
Washington responded to having his likeness taken with a
characteristic mixture of pride in his position and mild
irritation. Once, a painter in Boston hid behind a church
pulpit to sketch him. Washington's mild chafing at requests
for him to sit illustrates the conflict he felt between his
obligation to the nation and his desire to return to private
life. As Edmund Morgan writes in his preface, Washington
"succeeded in clothing the new government with his own honor
and left the presidency with a heritage of independence and
respect which, despite the antics of so many of his
successors, has never quite left it." George and Martha
Washington: Portraits from the Presidential Years offers,
quite literally, a unique portrait of the original First
Couple.
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