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George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Revolutionary War
George Washington: Politics and Government\Statesman\Colonial statesman
George Washington: Natural Resource Occupations\Agriculturist\Farmer
George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General
George Washington: Politics and Government\President of US
George Washington: Science and Technology\Surveyor
George Washington: Congressional Gold Medal
Portrait
Place
United States\Massachusetts
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of The Friends of the Corcoran and the artist through a Museum Exchange) The Corcoran Gallery of Art, one of the country’s first private museums, was established in 1869 to promote art and American genius. In 2014 the Works from the Corcoran Collection were distributed to institutions in Washington, D.C.
For his role in leading the Continental Army to victory during the Revolutionary War, and as the first president of the United States, George Washington is considered both the nation’s pater patriae as well as its first celebrity. In the last years of Washington’s life, his likeness became synonymous with the country and circulated widely in a variety of media, including paintings, prints, and marble statues. The most enduring portrait of Washington is Gilbert Stuart’s unfinished “Athenaeum” portrait, from 1796, which served as the basis for the image engraved on the one-dollar bill.
Stuart’s Red, White, and Blue reinterprets the “Athenaeum” portrait with a Pop art twist. Using Andy Warhol’s strategy of serial repetition, Sante Graziani appropriates and replicates Washington’s portrait multiple times in the colors of the American flag. This humorous gesture recognizes the founding father’s image and Stuart’s portrait in particular as icons of American popular culture.
Nacido en Westmoreland, Virginia
Por su papel en la victoria del Ejército Continental durante la Guerra de Independencia, y como primer presidente de Estados Unidos, George Washington es considerado el pater patriae y también la primera celebridad de la nación. En los últimos años de su vida, su imagen se convirtió en sinónimo del país y circuló ampliamente en medios como pintura, grabado y estatuas de mármol. El retrato más perdurable de Washington es la obra inconclusa de 1796 de Gilbert Stuart, llamada “retrato del Ateneo”, que sirvió de base para la imagen grabada en el billete de un dólar.
El rojo, blanco y azul de Stuart reinterpreta el “retrato del Ateneo” con un giro pop. Empleando la estrategia de repetición seriada de Andy Warhol, Sante Graziani se apropia del retrato de Washington y lo reproduce con los colores de la bandera estadounidense. Con este gesto humorístico reconoce la imagen del padre de la patria y en particular el retrato de Stuart como íconos de la cultura popular estadounidense.
Provenance
Sante Graziani [1920-2005]; The Friends of the Corcoran; Gift to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1966; Gift to NPG, 2019.
