DOLLEY MADISON, GILBERT STUART, AND GEORGE WASHINGTON'S PORTRAIT

This story, at its heart, is about a single event: Dolley Madison saving the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington from certain destruction by the British. But as happens so often in history, one salient event clouds our view of the past. In this short publication you will learn how Dolley, once a pious Quaker widow, set the standard by which First Ladies would be held to for more than a century; how Gilbert Stuart who, due to a lack of technical skill, developed a style of portrait ...