and in the foreground there are things that point to english law. he's pointing his finger to a figure of justice standing on a column that says lex anglus, means english law. this thing that's torn over here kind of refers to the english attempts to tax the colonies differently than they tax people in england. he's basically saying the law in england says this and you're doing this, you're treating us differently, and that shouldn't be. this is really a political statement. very complicated iconography that worked out with charles wilson peel. peel was a very prominent whig politician, a republican politician, in favor of the american republic. these paintings are primary sources. they really are. they're here for us to look at. there's no filter on them.

the only filter is what we might bring to them. if we look carefully and try to understand them, i think they're a great source for understanding who the people were and what life was like at that time. this was the first of a two-part look at american hor traits at the national gallery of art. you can view this and all other american history tv programs at our website, c-span.org/history. join american history tv on saturday, november 7th for tours and live interviews from the national world war ii museum in new orleans. we'll explore the u.s.s. tang submarine experience, the road to berlin, and the african-american story. and we'll take your questions for historians joining us from new orleans throughout the day. world war ii 70 years later live from the national world war ii museum saturday, november 7th beginning at 11:00 a.m. eastern here on american history tv on

c-span 3. each week american history tv's american artifacts visits museums and historic places. located on the national mall in washington, d.c., the national gallery of art was a gift to the american people from financier andrew melon, who served as treasury secretary from 1921 to 1932. up next, we visit the museum to learn about early american portrait painting. in this program, we feature the work of gilbert stuart, whose unfinished portrait of george washington is the image on the $1 bill. >> hello. i'm dianne stephens. john trumbull is an artist who was well known for his history paintings in america. he aspired to be a history painter. then he eventually went, like copley, to england and studied. spent a couple years with

benjamin west. benjamin west was an amazing figure who welcomed almost every painter we're going to talk about today, studied with west at some time. this is his portrait of alexander hamilton, who was a very prominent figure among our early fathers of this country. and it's interesting that here alexander hamilton is hanging next to gilbert stuart's portrait of john jay. alexander hamilton, john jay, and john madison wrote the federalist papers. john jay invited alexander hamilton to be part of the treaty commission in london, so there's quite a connection between these two men. who knew they would hang next to each other in the national gallery? looking at john jay leads us to gilbert stuart, who is the p

preeminent painter of the period. he was a very well established painter in london. very proficient and could have stayed in england painting, could have sold his paintings there, but he just accumulate d debt. so he left london and went to dublin. the same thing happened to him in dublin. he accumulated all sorts of debts, and he decided he would come to america and paint washington and he would make his fortune by painting washington. so in 1793 he came to america. he didn't go to paint washington immediately though. he stopped in new york city and he painted there for about a year and a half. in a year and a half's time, he

painted 36 paintings, 36 portraits. he knew john jay. he met john jay when he was in england. john jay introduced him to his circle of friends. he also knew a family in ireland that introduced him to a circle of friends, so he was right away very busy doing portraits. his technical skills were so amazing. he was so proficient that no one could top gilbert stuart. this was his portrait of john jay done in new york in 1774. these are the robes given to him by harvard. that's why he's shown in this beautiful red and black costume rather than a more conservative suit. he's got his hand resting on a book and the other hand on his lap. just the picture of judicial proficiency.

it was john jay. gilbert stuart's purpose of coming to america was to paint washington and it was john jay who gave him his introduction to washington. before going to washington, let's go into the next gallery. before painting washington, as i said, stuart spent a year and a half in new york and painted many portraits while he was there. and we're lucky enough to have, oh, probably eight of them. he painted a whole series of portraits for the yates pollock family. two of them are hanging right here. this is katherine brass yates. this is richard yates. stuart at his most amazing. katherine yates was married to richard yates who hangs on the other side of the doorway over there. he had an importing company, so

they were import/exporters of goods. they took to the west indies cloth and flour. they brought back molasses and rum and those type of things from the west indies. he had a flourishing import/export business. her husband eventually did end upsi siding with the british an left new york for a while. they came back to new york in 1775 or 76. they did not leave the country. they were here during the war. katherine brass yates, she's a 57, 58-year-old woman when stuart painted her and she wasn't very beautiful, but he's done an amazing thing. he's shown her in her long face

and pointed nose. he's shown her turned sideways to us. she had so much to do. she was such an industrious person. she couldn't stop working while he was painting her. here she is sewing. the way her little finger stretches that little piece of thread out and she has the glitter of her thimble in her hand and the needle in her hand and the shine on the thread. her beautiful monochrome gray satin dress that she's wearing, very simple. the reflections of the red of her chair coming into the satin in more places than here, but in other places as well. little brass tacks on her chair. the glint of her wedding ring. most of all it is a study in grays and browns. her brown eyes looking out at us very appraisingly, and the

beautiful mob cap she's wearing. a mob cap, you might have noticed martha washington was wearing a similar mob cap called that because it was worn during the french revolution by mobs. it was a symbol of support for democracy and for the revolution. but in her case, it may have just been fashion, but it's beautifully painted. i love this little swipe of white out here, this little shade, and then the bow at the top. his brush stroke is so sure and so -- the paint is so beautiful on the stuart painting. stuart said it was a waste of time to use chalk or pencil and do an underdrawing. he said it should all be done with the paint brush. not many people can do that just with the paint brush, but stuart could. we'll take a look at katherine brass yates' husband over here.

attention to detail. you may have noticed on epes sergeant there was hair powder on the collar and here it is again. it is wig powder that's on his shoulder. it must not have been a faux pas to have that showing because both of these painters painted it. here are his brass buttons glistening against the beautiful dark blue of that coat he's wearing and he's sitting in a windsor shachair. i love the way his accruement -- are sitting on the desk. his wife's painting is a classic. it's gilbert stuart at his very

best, i think. let's walk along this wall. this was another stuart portrait painted while he was new york before he ever went to philadelphia to paint washington. this is henrietta. so many times these were done as a pair. her husband was a newly appointed ambassador to the u.s. and they were newlyweds. this was painted right before they returned to england. an interesting thing about stuart as a painter is that he could be very slow. what henrietta wrote in her diary -- the thing about stuart, he's remarkable for being dilatory. it's amazing that paint draws so slowly in this country.

many people noted that. stuart sometimes came through very quickly, but other times he just didn't even finish a work. he was very mercurial. this is such a beautifully done portrait with the color harmonies that stuart used for her. the beautiful linings and the peach and the way her bonnet is lined and the bow and the bow under her chin and the blue in the sky. it is unusual for him to show someone doing something. yates was sewing and then hen henrietta pulling on her glove. the variety of stuart's brush is just so amazing. in some areas the paint is very thin. in other areas it is very built

up. you can see the texture of the canvas coming through in this one. this is rembrandt peel. rembrandt peel was one of the sons of charles wilson peel. charles wilson peel had a huge number of children. i can't remember how many. one was rembrandt. one was rubins. one was raphael. this is rembrandt painting rubins, his brother, with a geranium. it is a portrait of rubins and geranium. we'll see more work by rembrandt peel later. here we come to nelly custus. we saw her in the washington family portrait as a young girl. here she is a young woman painted by stuart in 1804, so this is after he had left new york. she's wearing a very comfortable at ease dress, but she has this beautiful sash tied around her

waist and twining over her arm, a transparent sash. nelly custus, she had had a hard life. her father died when she was young. she had been very, very close to martha washington. martha washington died in 1802. it was very devastating for nelly to lose martha washington. also, she had a child that contracted the measles, died from the measles, and nelly herself got measles. she was at a time in her life where there was a lot of sadness and melancholy. stuart captures that, i think, with her looking off in the distance. stuart, as i said earlier, his whole point in coming to america was to make his fortune painting washington. and the history of his paintings of washington is a little bit

complicated. he came to philadelphia. he had the letter of introduction from john jay. he took it to washington and surprisingly washington was willing to -- he invited him for an evening that very evening and he was willing to sit the next morning. the first portrait stuart did of washington, it's called "the van portrait," because it was commissioned by someone named van. stuart did that portrait and immediately had 3333 patrons, who wanted copies of that portrait. he made 12 or 13 copies and then he got tired of doing that. and we have a van portrait not on view. we have one downstairs, which is another replica of that. for a while the gallery thought our van portrait might have been the original that stuart painted, but it is probably a

very early copy because stuart wrote that he had rubbed that one out. in the midst of making replicas of the van portrait, he got another commission from martha washington for the portrait, x became the one that was used on the dollar bill and is the one that is modelled after. this one was a replica of the ahea athenium. this is the portrait of washington by stuart for that commission. they're not all exactly the same depending on stuart felt when he was doing the replica. stuart said that washington was difficult to paint because he

was so taciturn. washington was not one to suffer that glib kind of conversation that stuart liked to partake in, so it was difficult to get washington. they said washington, when he wasn't engaged in an idea or talking about something, when he was doing that, his features were very enlivened, but when he wasn't, his features went slack. so he had no expression, which may be some of the trouble stuart had with him, but this is a very elegant portrait of the first father. this is a replica of a portrait we'll see downstairs that stuart did of john adams. here he's changed the color of his clothing and given him this rich reddish brown jacket. the technique he used about the little lines around the eyes and

the little bits of blue that reflect enliven the face quite a bit. he's done it with washington to some extent as well. stuart would block in the face in a very fluid way, very light. then he'd go back and put the highlights on the top of his head where the light would shine. you can see his bald dome has the heavier paint on it and on the nose and various places where the light would catch. this is jefferson, who is a little less focused looking, to me, than the others. but similar backgrounds to all of them. this he took a replica of a portrait he had done of jefferson and not delivered to him yet. so he had it in his studio and was able to use it. and madison, part of the

pluribus group. then we come to james monroe. you'll notice the background in the monroe painting is different, and it may be because this one started a little earlier. this one was started in 1817 when monroe was president. monroe did not like this painting very well, was not happy with it. maybe it was the background that stuart was using at the time. this is the only set that exists now of the five presidents. there were two. he did one for a man named dogget as well. only three remain -- only two remain. i think it is only madison and monroe. the other burned in the library of congress. the frames are original and are thought to be by dogget, a frame

maker in boston. hanging on the wall is george washington. i guess by now you're beginning to get the sense, i think, that the 18th century in america at the time of the revolution and after the revolution was a very small place. many of the same people congresswoman come up again and again. we've seen a few of those relationships upstairs. john jay and alexander hamilton and george washington. the most important thing, i think, is of this small place with all these people that are all interconnected george washington is the center. everybody knows george washington. everybody admires george washington. everybody wants a portrait. everybody wants to paint george washington if you're a painter. if it's a painting or an engraving from a painting or maybe it's a vase that you bought from france with george

washington's image on it or a society of the cincinnati plate considering george washington to be the modern-day -- or maybe it's a clock with george washington on it imported from france. everyone wants something with george washington on it. this portrait we're looking at right here is the galleries of von sinclair george washington. it was cleaned by a grant the gallery has from the bank of america to conserve paintings by gilbert stuart. i think we're working our way through them, but this was one of the first ones that was done. it's a replica of the van image. this one was requested by a man named van and then also owned by someone named sinclair, so that's why it's called the van

sinclair image of washington. this is a replica of the very first image of washington that stuart did. you can see the red drapery in the background capturing the presidential image there. beside it is an image of washington by rembrandt peel. it's done much later. it's done in 1859, so it is after washington had died. we also in the gallery have another image now by rembrandt peel of george washington, washington before yorktown, that hangs in the stairwell. it's a magnificent painting and we may see it later. let's walk across the room and look at these portraits of john and abigail adams. we saw john upstairs. actually that portrait we saw upstairs of john in his

reddish-brown coat is a replica of this painting. stuart never finished it. abigail adams wrote that she just didn't know what to think about that man stuart. the likeness wasgood, but perhaps her children would they ever see it because stewart just didn't finish it and it was only in 1815 that stewart came back to this portrait and finally finished it. he -- adams had to come and sit again for it because of course he had changed in 15 years and stewart repainted it and updated it, added the wrinkles and all that adams had acquired. now, an gail adams, her portrait was also commissioned in 1800 and never finished and stewart came back to do it again in 1815 and abigail did not repose, she did not resit for it so her face stayed the same. very smart woman. and the dress is the old style

fashion that she had on, but stewart added an up to date scarf and the bonnet. those are new. those are in fashion in 1815. so he updated her portrait, but her face remained the same. stewart apparently said to her nephew when he was painting her the first time in 1800, i wish i could have painted her when she was younger, it would have been a perfect venus. maybe he said that to all the women he painted. but these are classics of american portraits, these portraits of john and abigail paintings, they are wonderful paintings by stewart and worth the wait. they have been recently conserved from that bank of america grant. so they're looking their very best. now, there are some other paintings in this room here. let's go across over here to -- this is captain joseph anthony. this was painted by stewart when he was in new york. joseph anthony is stewart's

uncle and one of his contacts when he came to this country. he was in philadelphia. stewart went down to paint him or he came up to new york, i'm not sure, but this is his uncle and someone who really did a great benefactor for stewart, introduced him to many people and did a lot for him to get his career started. so he is shown at his desk -- or in a chair, desk chair and he has not his papers in front of him and he's writing. >> this is an additional portrait of george washington, a wonderful painting that has just come to the gallery from the corcoran collection and just been hung in the seventh street stairwell. it's george washington before the battle of yorktown painted by ram brant peel who we have seen already and painted in 1829. a little later than what we've been looking at. it's george washington on his horse, his white horse, preparing for battle and you can

see washington -- of course, the challenge that peel had was washington had been a 49-year-old general when -- at the battle of yorktown and at this time when peel is painting it he is a 66-year-old -- well, actually, he is portraying him as a 66-year-old president. so there is a difference. it's 1829 so washington has already died, but there is a difference. it's the image, the presidential image of washington that everyone is so interested in. peel shows him with alexander hamilton, his aid to camp that we have seen already darting off to the right on his horse. alexander hamilton was known to be very i'm pet with us and off to something quickly that may be what's happening and this is lafayette that's at washington's right on the horse behind him. the other generals in the background are known, one is knox, one is -- i'm not sure i

remember who they are but they are known for traits of men. and the noxious weed in the foreground that the horse is trampling on is great britain and this is yorktown of course before -- this is before yorktown but yorktown of course is the concluding battle of the revolutionary war. so this is a members of the j y jurier addition to our collection and wonderful to have it hanging here to yet another image of washington. we've looked briefly at these patientings but they require much more time really to understand what the artist had in mind and what tools he has used to create that image and all of the details that he has included. you noticed some paintings that it's very little, very simple, some of the stewart paintings have very little black and white paint and yet he has been able to create an image that's very belile