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George Washington, Patriae Pater by Rembrandt Peale, circa 1824.
Credit: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Bequest of Mrs. Sarah Harrison (The Joseph Harrison, Jr. Collection)
In July 1787, Rembrandt Peale was first introduced to George Washington by his father, Charles Willson Peale, who was then painting the future president. In 1795 Rembrandt, then just seventeen, painted his own portrait of Washington from life. From 1823 until his death in 1860, Peale painted no fewer than seventy-nine idealized portraits of Washington, which he sold to wealthy patrons and government agencies.