A Tale of Two Georges: Exploring Portraits of George III and George Washington | BRIdge to the Past

0:06 Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of Bridge to the Path, Art Across US history. I’m your host, Mary Patterson, and today is all about the portrait. Portraits portray their subjects very intentionally. They can be a window not just into the individual, but at the bigger time from which they come.

0:27 Today we’re looking at two portraits of two individuals who are pretty important when you talk about the creation of the United States as a country. So we have our work cut out for us, so I am delighted to have some backup. So with me today is my coworker, the one and only Gary Colletti. Hi Gary. Hi. What a lovely introduction that was.

0:49 I feel so elevated. Tell us a little bit about what your role is on the BRI team. Sure. Well, I was a teacher myself. That may come up in this conversation, but currently I’m a director of programs. So that means all of the teacher and student programs, whether or not they’re in person or online, will cross my path at some point.

1:09 So we interact a lot, you and I, but also you out there, students and others, you may see us in any one of our programs. Right. So we’re not teachers technically anymore, but we’re still teachers, and we’re always students. Have that on the brain, have an experience with it. Yeah, first and foremost. So, Gary, are you ready to look at some portraits? I am. I love doing things like this.

1:29 It’s very exciting. Okay, so let’s dive in. Without further ado, we are pleased to present you with A Tale of Two Georges. So we are looking at two portraits of two men, both named George from the 1700s. So if you’ve seen us in past Bridge to the Past episodes,

1:50 you’ll know that we are right in the lead up to the American Revolution. So we’re still in that general time period. And we’re going to start with George number one, king George III by the artist Johan Zoffany, and this was painted in 1771. So we have talked about before that whenever you see a visual primary

2:12 source, especially a painting and especially a portrait, you really just want to look and observe, just take in what you see and make some observations and use those observations to start formulating questions. So right off the bat, from the title of this, I know it’s King George III, and one of my questions is, why isn’t he wearing a crown?

2:34 Right? I mean, you’re a king. It would seem like that’s a dead giveaway. To be a king is to have a crown on your head, but he doesn’t have one, so I wonder why he made that choice. Again. So there’s room to speculate, right? I mean, it strikes me to imagine this is not the only portrait of this king.

2:55 Then one might imagine that there are some crowned portraits, some formalized one somewhere. So this might be one of a few so that’s an excellent question. Why in this particular one? And it would appear that what he is wearing not a crown. I see a hat. If we’re in the purely observational stage here, I see a hat, sword, sash is a table, nice chair.

3:18 What I would say is a military uniform, but a very formalized one. And again, if the question was to me or to others, it seems to be that observing that there’s no crown, but it seems to be highlighting his military responsibilities, would you say? Yeah maybe. That’s.

3:39 Another thing that really strikes me about this is the coat, the sash. This looks like a fancy sort of pin or metal on his chest. So what’s going on with that? Why is he wearing this uniform? I mean, the chair is very nice, the table is pretty fancy, but the background is pretty uncluttered. It’s pretty right. Pay no attention to that background.

4:00 Focus on the foreground. And I have to say, your question is a good one to me, if I can jump in, is that you’ve called my attention. The fact that he is actually sitting kind of casually for if this were, as I said, a military thing, that also probably would seem more formal. This seems very informal. Yeah, he’s sort of lounging. He looks comfortable.

4:22 Just some basic questions based on what we’re observing here, is why isn’t he wearing a crown? What’s going on with the uniform? So he has some sort of sash and he has the sword, and it looks like a medal or something on his breast. So why was this painted? If he is a king, and like you said, there are probably other portraits of him. So why this particular one? And who would have seen it?

4:43 Because that might give us more clues as to why he’s depicted in this way. That’s a great question of the let’s start with who would have seen this. Do we know where it was, is? Did it have a specific location that it was for, an event it was for? Well, it does.

5:03 So let me jump forward. Well, let’s jump forward to your question there. So this picture was seen by the public, and it was likely commissioned by the king or the queen or maybe both of them. And it was actually hung in this place called the Royal Academy, and George III actually starts

5:26 the Royal Academy, which was just this patronage, basically. He gathered all of these artists, gave them money, royal funds, to create art, and they would display it every year, and the public could come and see it. So he was pretty, I guess, supportive of artists. And the Royal Academy is something that goes on even to the present day. And as an artist, to be a member of the Royal Academy is a pretty big deal.

5:50 And this particular artist, Johan Zoffany was known for presenting subjects sort of as they wanted to be presented. So that sort of gives us an insight into King George III. He didn’t really like pretentiousness, he kind of liked simple things. So even though he is it’s a very ornate

6:11 table and a pretty snazzy uniform and a very nice chair for a king. Pretty simple background. There’s no crown, there’s no orb inceptor or symbols of like, royal power. There’s no coronation robe. It’s just him and an officer’s uniform. And that’s really interesting.

6:31 So this is his choice to use the word portrayed this way and that I think that’s interesting. Right. So, I mean, there may be symbolism in here and by symbolism I mean like, why that particular jacket, why it’s composed that way, but it’s not symbolic the way that one might expect for someone reigning.

6:55 If this is for artists primarily now you said it was for the public, but artists would be seeing it. That seems like that’s a very distinct choice, perhaps even to these artists, to say, like, if you are part of this, then you get the casual version of me by an artist that I hold in some esteem. It’s done very well. It’s a portrait that, having never met King George III,

7:18 I imagine looks very much like him, I’m guessing. And then what’s in there is very focused on almost the humanity of him, which you’re right is very unusual for a portrait of a king. Right. And I think it’s also important to think about portraits are generally, and certainly in this time period, portraying someone rich or powerful,

7:40 because it’s not to have your portrait painted is a timely pricey affair. So obviously as a king, he’s both rich and powerful and it is a status for the artist being a part of the Royal Academy, being chosen to depict to the King. But I think also the sort of military uniform and guise as the king.

8:00 It almost reflects the context from which he’s coming as well. So this quote here George III, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the Faith, and so forth. This is George’s official title. The so forth is my favorite part. And so forth is part of the specific. So in 1771, he’s been the King since he’s been the King for eleven years.

8:25 At this point he becomes king when he’s 22 years old, so he’s still fairly young, 33 in this picture. He becomes king in the middle of the Seven Years War. So he comes to power when he’s fighting France basically for world domination. And we talked about the Seven Years War, the French and Indian War on prior episodes, but it was this battle playing out in North American colonies as well as

8:47 other places in the world for who would be supreme, Britain or France. And of course Britain wins. That was really expensive. And that’s when you start seeing the Stamp Act and the Townsend Acts and the colonists being taxed to help pay for that cost of the war, and then things just kind of keep escalating from there. So the colonists aren’t happy, of course, with the taxes, and they start protesting.

9:09 Troops are sent over, british troops are sent to Boston in 1768, and they would have warned the officers would have worn a uniform very much like Georgia Third is wearing. So this is right in the middle of all these tensions with the colonies, and things are going to escalate from here. So in 1771, we still haven’t seen the Boston Tea Party. Britain and the American colonies aren’t at war yet, but tensions are rising.

9:32 So I don’t know, I think that his choice of being in the military uniform, his reign, in a way, is going to be defined by war. He comes to power during a war, he’s going to see the American Revolutionary War, and then after that, he’ll see war again with France. So I think there are still symbols of his power here, but he’s sort of I think he kind of looks smug and in control, like he’s calm.

9:55 Nothing’s phasing him. So this goes back to your very first thing about observation, right? And you had a good list of questions there. Can I zero in on that smug part? Because that’s interesting to me. Is it the body position? Is it his face? What is it that makes him smug to you? I think it’s a little bit of both.

10:17 He doesn’t seem nervous at all. He just sort of seems at ease and comfortable. And I’m interpreting putting that comfort as having confidence. And why wouldn’t you be confident if you’re 33 years old and you’re. You’re the king of Great Britain, Ireland, defender of the faith and so forth and so forth. Yeah. You have a lot to be confident about.

10:38 You living large. Yeah. That’s a big thing. Right. Exactly like you said. I was thinking the same thing, that it’s not like what we know the American Revolution coming down the pike is going to be he’s not new to any kind of conflict. He starts with it, it seems continuous. So perhaps the whole military thing, like you said,

10:59 it’s nothing new for him to be thinking about these things happening. But then that leads to the whole he doesn’t seem like that smug thing, maybe. Sure, conflicts may be happening, but he doesn’t seem to think he’s losing them or is nervous about them in this particular portrait at all. Why would he be nervous? He is the King of Great Britain.

11:20 Great Britain has defeated France in the Seven Years War. They control a vast amount of territory in the North American colonies. They’re encroaching even more in India. They have their presence sort of all over the world. He has no reason to worry. Right? Yeah. So that casual stance in this portrait may not just be that he was tired from sitting

11:44 for a while, but rather to express things are fine in England. I think so. I mean, he may he maybe he was tired, I think, sitting imagine I mean, it’s hard for us to imagine you’re actually just sitting in your pose, not moving, maybe not talking, maybe making small talk. I’m not sure which of those is worse, but it’s it’s an involved thing. But I think this was intentional, this was time, this was money.

12:07 Right. Chose to be portrayed that way. Right. Which leads me to the question about the face and the whole is that just his resting face and I guess his resting faces as one of confidence? Yes. I guess that’s something we just will never know if that’s his resting face or not. If students, if you guys know or you have a theory base, please let us know.

12:30 But let’s transition to George number two. Okay, so we are fast forwarding five years in time. It’s now 1776. And we have our second George, george Washington by the American artist Charles Wilson Peale. So once again, we have a portrait of an individual, and we should just observe and try to turn

12:53 those observations into questions to learn more. OK, so now, having a second one, we can kind of compare and contrast. Right. And what we what we knew about this person prior George the Third, is that he has been king a little while now. This is 1776 for George Washington. Obviously, we know him as extremely famous. The same question I have then, about George the third.

13:16 Would this be one of a number of portraits of his? Would he have already had or is this like his debut portrait? Because you said this is the war is going on at this point, right? Well, the war is going on. Yes. We’re in the height of the revolution. Height of the war.

13:36 So he’s a known person. It seems very clear why he’s dressed in military outfits. Yes. And he has, again, his stance, to me, it doesn’t seem as relaxed. Yes. The arm on the cane is not I don’t know how you hold that for a while. That’s extremely odd. But he also has his hand in his shirt,

13:58 which is something I have seen in other portraits of other men in power. So I’m wondering what’s going on with the hand in the shirt? And again, where is he? Why was this painted? So, like you said, is this the first portrait of George Washington? Like, why this particular pose? Why this particular time? Who would have seen this?

14:19 So these are all good questions to ask as a point of departure. Right. And it’s good. I’m glad you’ve given outlook, you’re going right to context, which was my question. So again, he’s important enough to have a portrait taken, not like it’s photographed just to sit for a portrait. But you mentioned, like, location.

14:39 The background is very different. This is not just wallpaper or anything like this. What’s the significance of the background? Right. It looks like a specific place versus the chair. So again, if we’re situating ourselves in time so we’re a few years beyond where we were with King George III.

15:00 So the Boston Tea Party has happened. So tensions keep escalating between the colonies and Great Britain. We’ve actually had shots fired at Lexington and Concord and then the British Army is sieging Boston. So George Washington is then appointed commander of a Continental army because there’s fighting actually happening now in Boston. They need a leader. He’s appointed commander in 1775.

15:24 He frees boston. And there’s actually sort of a last ditch effort to avoid a full on war with all of branch petitions. So Congress sends a letter to King George III saying, we don’t want this to actually become a war. King George III doesn’t even read it. Wow. Now you are an open rebellion.

15:44 So the war has started and they’re actually, as George Washington is sitting for this portrait, the Continental Congress is drafting the Declaration of Independence. So you have Washington as the commander with Boston in the background. And the war is really just starving. And it’s a huge question mark. I mean, we, the American colonies are taking on the British Empire.

16:06 Yeah. So it is not a foregone conclusion that the United States will the colonies are going to win. Right. And yet there’s enough confidence in Washington to say, let’s get a portrait of him showing liberated Boston. Right. Well, I’ll go back into this audience. It was actually commissioned by John Hancock, who’s a Boston resident and president of the Continental Congress.

16:30 So Washington is appointed commander and Hancock wants to, of course, recognize him as a leader, but also he’s thankful to Boston. He’s thankful to Washington for freeing Boston because he’s a pretty wealthy resident there. He had a lot of property there, so of course he wanted the British out. So all of these things sort of play into why he’s depicted the way he is.

16:51 And just the hand in the shirt is actually something that goes back to ancient Greece, and ears were depicted this way, and it was supposed to at around Washington’s time. In American and British portraits reflect leadership and calm and confidence. So if someone saw this in the 1770s, they would say, oh, okay, this is like power pose, even.

17:15 We are just kind of like, that looks awkward with his cane. But this was actually his leadership and his confidence. So comparing this to the prior portrait, they both are seeking look at that. They both are seeking to exhibit leadership and confidence, and things are fine.

17:37 We’ve got this covered. But they’re actually on completely opposite sides of that. So they both are saying, don’t worry, we’re not going to lose this to the people. Hopefully, you’re probably seeing this portrait, right? I think that there’s a lot of interesting comparisons between these two men. So obviously they’re living at the same time, they have the same name, but they had a lot of things in common. I think they were both very determined.

17:59 So Washington was determined to, like, see through the cause of American independence. So he leads the Continental Army for eight long years, and it’s a ragtag underdog army for sure, but he really holds it together. And King George III also hangs on to this idea, I’m not letting these colonies go, and he actually considers abdicating

18:20 rather than officially acknowledging that they’re going to leave. So they sort of had these similar traits. But it’s sort of interesting how events unfold and the differences between them. One inherits power. One is elected to power and leaves power. He leaves the army as a leader, which nobody can believe that he does.

18:40 Right. Everyone’s sort of expecting another Julius Caesar episode to happen, and then he leaves the presidency after two terms. So really kind of remarkable decisions that even impressed King George III. Yeah. And that was going to be my question too. But I guess it’s fairly clear that you can often compare portraits. But these two men were probably very well aware of each other.

19:02 Yes, they were. And I think there’s this wonderful quote that when it can’t be traced, but I’ve seen it in several places that when King Georgia third hears that Washington has resigned power and is going back home to his farm to Mount Vernon, he says, well, if he does that, he’ll be the greatest man who ever lived. Like, he just can’t believe that he would

19:23 leave power like that in American Cincinnatius, as they say. Yeah. And one is sort of remembered as this king who went mad. He had a condition that was interpreted as madness, but that’s really not what it was. And the other is sort of revered as the father of our country. They were both family men.

19:44 They both like farming. They both were sort of self conscious about their learning. George didn’t learn to read until he was almost eleven years old. So they had a lot of things, small things in common, but sort of their role on the world stage kind of took them down different paths. So it’s kind of fun to see them side by side. It is. One wonders what would have happened had they met?

20:06 Yes, that’s an excellent question. If you can think of a good short act play as to how what happens when King George III meets George Washington, you’ve got to let us know. But we are out of time here on the past, so we are going to have to say goodbye and thank you. And remember, whether you’re posting something on Instagram or Twitter,

20:26 whatever it is, you are portraying yourself very intentionally. So think about what is this going to say about me and how might others interpret this? Just one of those timeless questions. They were asking it in 1776 and we ask it today. So if you like this video, if you learned something, be sure to like this video subscribe. We’ve got lots of other things to help you in the school year ahead.

20:50 So thanks again. Thanks for inviting me. Thanks. Bye. Thanks Gary.