Gilbert Stuart 1797 Portrait of George Washington – The Kidder - Meade Portrait

A 1797 Athenaeum portrait from life by Gilbert Stuart, this 30 x 25 inch portrait of President Washington is known as the Richard Kidder - Meade portrait, who served as an aide-de-camp to General Washington during the Revolutionary War, his name was on Stuart’s original 1795 list of subscribers noted as “those to have portraits of the President”. The painting descended to Meade’s son Bishop Meade of Richmond, Virginia and subsequently was owned the Mellon family of Pittsburg. The portrait is illustrated in the well-known and respected publications on George Washington portraiture such as the work of Mantle Fielding on page 205 – number 84; Park’s Volume II, page 884, number 82; and finally Eisen’s Volume I, pp. 141-144.