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George Washington posed here

Colonial painters created an icon, and an appetite for art

''Athenaeum Portrait,'' 1796, by Gilbert Stuart. Since 1918, this likeness of George Washington has been engraved, in reverse, on the $1 bill. ''Athenaeum Portrait,'' 1796, by Gilbert Stuart. Since 1918, this likeness of George Washington has been engraved, in reverse, on the $1 bill. (AP Photo/The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
By James Sullivan
March 1, 2009

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George Washington hated posing. A practical man little given to indulgence, he would have preferred riding out to inspect his vast farmland at Mount Vernon, in Virginia, or conducting business or legislative work, or just about anything else, for that matter, than to strike a pose for a painter. (Full article: 693 words)

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