Portrait of George Washington (after Gilbert Stuart)

One of the most recognizable likenesses of George Washington, the “Athenaeum Portrait” of 1796 was Gilbert Stuart’s most reproduced image. While Stuart never completed the original, he used it as the basis for approximately 75 copies; demand was so high that Stuart referred to these replicas as “100 dollar bills,” based on their standard sale price. Thomas Sully, who was briefly Stuart’s student, also copied this famous portrait many times. Born in Lincolnshire, England, Sully emigrated with his family in 1792 and eventually settled in Philadelphia. He probably made this copy of Stuart’s landmark work in the mid-1850s, well after the older man’s death, when Sully had taken his place as the foremost portrait painter in the United States.