Mount Vernon Displays Earliest Known Washington Portrait

mOppenheimTV –Dec. 14, 2018

MOUNT VERNON, Va. (AP) — The earliest known portrait of George Washington is on public display at his historic home.

Washington’s Mount Vernon estate put the 1772 portrait by Charles Willson Peale on display Thursday in its museum and education center.

The portrait is on loan from Washington and Lee University and is expected to stay at Mount Vernon for the next two years.

In exchange, Mount Vernon has lent its famous 1798 portrait of Washington by Gilbert Stuart to the university. That portrait serves as the basis for Washington’s depiction on the dollar bill.

The Peale portrait shows Washington as a colonel in the Virginia Regiment and is the only known portrait of him before the American Revolution.

Mount Vernon believes it’s the first time the portrait has returned to the estate since 1802.