The capital of the United States from 1790 to 1800, Philadelphia boasted an affluent local citizenry, visitors as diverse as French planters from the Caribbean and European merchants, and a prodigious number of state and federal government officials; their presence triggered an influx of American and European artists. Stuart arrived in Philadelphia in late November 1794, planning just a short stay. He explained to his uncle, the merchant Joseph Anthony, "The object of my journey is only to secure a picture of the President, & finish yours."

Stuart painted his first portrait of George Washington some time in 1795. Its success brought commissions for two new portraits of the president and orders for replicas of the three originals, as well as requests from patrons for portraits of themselves. In order to keep up with the volume of work, Stuart most often painted on relatively small canvases measuring about 30 by 25 inches, a standard size for English portraits, then called the "three-quarter length." To escape the large numbers of visitors who came to see his work in Philadelphia, as well as the city's annual yellow fever epidemics, Stuart moved his studio to Germantown, Pennsylvania, for five years beginning in the summer of 1796.

Stuart found Philadelphia a much different artistic milieu from the one he had known in London, where public exhibition, commerce, and patronage of the arts were vigorous. To him, many American patrons seemed unsympathetic to his notions about the artist and his status in society that he had developed in London. His portraits remained in high demand nonetheless, and he became inextricably engaged in the business of portraiture in the new nation.


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