Miniature portrait, George Washington, by Charles Willson Peale (watercolor on ivory, 1776)

Portraits

After painting miniatures of Martha Washington and her children four years earlier, Charles Willson Peale was commissioned by Martha to portray her husband in a miniature. George was at the front and thus could not sit for the portrait, so Peale modeled it after an earlier full-size portrait of Washington that he had executed. The miniature portrays Washington in his military uniform as commander of the Continental Army (image courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies' Association).

Charles Willson Peale

1776

portrait miniature, watercolor on ivory

eng

W-460

painting