This Historic Portrait of George Washington Is Being Restored to Its Former Glory
The 18th-century painting by Charles Willson Peale had previously been the subject of mismanaged restoration attempts. Now, experts in Versailles are bringing it back in line with the artist’s original intent
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In 1779, the American artist Charles Willson Peale painted a portrait of George Washington, depicting the president after an American victory over the British at the 1777 Battle of Princeton. Peale made several copies of this painting, and four were presented as diplomatic gifts to European leaders.
One of these copies has long hung in the United States embassy in Paris, and a recent research project verified that the work is indeed a Peale. Now, it’s heading to Versaille to be restored to its original glory.
According to a statement from the U.S. embassy in France, the painting’s restoration will be conducted by French conservators in the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France’s labs in Versaille. The project’s goals include “cleaning, improving structural support, reversing past restorations and restoring losses faithfully to the artist’s intent.”
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Previous “botched” restoration attempts involved a “clumsy repainting of the founding father’s face,” writes Artnet’s Jo Lawson-Tancred. Per the statement, these changes weren’t documented and don’t reflect Peale’s intentions.
Born in Maryland in 1741, Peale is famous for his paintings of Washington, who sat for seven portraits between 1772 and 1795. His 1772 painting, which depicts Washington as a colonel in Virginia, is the earliest known portrait of the Revolutionary War general.
Peale’s artistic practice was often fused with politics. While serving in the Pennsylvania militia, he painted portrait miniatures of fellow officers. He then made a career of portraying early American heroes like Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Carol Eaton Soltis, a Peale scholar and curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was one of the experts enlisted to authenticate the embassy’s portrait. When she first saw the painting, Soltis knew it wasn’t like other Peales she’d studied. As the New York Times’ Ralph Blumenthal wrote in 2023, experts described Washington’s face as “overpainted and ‘mushy looking.’”
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“What am I looking at?” Soltis remembered thinking, per the Times. “This horrible mask-like face.”
“It didn’t look like any other portraits in the series,” Lauren Hall, a conservator with the U.S. State Department’s Office of Cultural Heritage who led the authentication efforts, told the Times.
The painting’s strange alterations may be explained by its tumultuous past, which was revealed through extensive research during the authentication process. According to a short documentary from the Office of Cultural Heritage, the portrait was commissioned by Henry Laurens, an early American statesman. In 1780, Laurens brought it on a ship bound for the Netherlands, where he aimed to procure donations for the American revolutionary cause. But the ship—and the painting—were captured by the British.
“It could have been damaged on purpose,” art conservator Emily MacDonald-Korth told the Times.
Many years later, the portrait returned to the U.S., where it was donated to the State Department’s Heritage Collection in 1989.
Peale’s original Washington at Princeton is housed in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Other replicas are on display in the U.S. Capitol and at Princeton University. Another was purchased for $21.3 million at a Christie’s auction in 2006.
According to Le Monde’s Francis Gouge, the authenticated portrait in Versailles is now worth some $22 million. After the restoration concludes this summer, the piece will return to the U.S. embassy in Paris.
“This painting has lived this incredibly dramatic life; it was essentially lost to history,” Hall says in the documentary. “We’ve not only relocated this picture but we’ve also contributed significantly to the greater understanding of this artist and his work.”
