It came to be known as the "Athenaeum portrait" because it was acquired by the Boston Athenaeum just after the artist's death. The Athenaeum owned it for 150 years.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and hazard a guess that Forrest never owned the original. Perhaps he owned one of the reproductions that Gilbert made but it sounds more likely to me that he owned an er ahem.
"In the actual portrait he is facing right but on the bill he is facing left." What does that even mean? Whose left? What is clear is that the image on the bill shows the right side of his face and the Atheneum portrait the left, so at least Forrest has that going for him.
I was going from memory. Thought I read a hundred. Either way, he painted the original and then made copies of it. Washington did not sit before the artist for the painting that Forrest had in the gallery. The kids were imagining it, so it was real.
(02-09-2019, 11:29 PM)crazyfamily Wrote: I was going from memory. Thought I read a hundred. Either way, he painted the original and then made copies of it. Washington did not sit before the artist for the painting that Forrest had in the gallery. The kids were imagining it, so it was real.
I think I read both 100 and 70. The source for 70 is in the senate link above, but it was qualified somehow. Anyway Fenn MIGHT have had one of those reproductions or perhaps a reproduction made by someone else like the one in the NY Times article might or might not have been. He didn't have the original though.
No, he didn't have the original that was painted with Washington sitting before him.
I am just catching up in the forum, and have no idea how this relates to the Chase? Is this thread a continuation of this topic elsewhere in the forum?
Fenn said he had the original portrait and let the kids touch it.
Interesting stuff. I wonder if Albert Gallatin's signature ever graced a note with Washington's face.