George Washington, #6,903
Folk and Self-Taught Art

George Washington, #6,903
Artwork Details
Artist/Maker
Howard Finster
American, 1916–2001
American, 1916–2001
Date
1987
Medium
Paint on board
Accession #
1997.71
Dimensions
48 x 48 1/8 inches
Location
On View - Stent Family Wing, Skyway, Gallery 408
Description
George Washington was the subject of Finster’s first painting, and the artist continued to portray his hero in a wide array of poses and at different ages. Finster felt a mystical connection to Washington, who also serves here as a figure of loss, evincing the painter’s nostalgia for a potent kind of integrity he felt the modern world had forgotten. In this portrait, the president’s head materializes amid a proliferation of details that blends Washington’s torso with the background and renders him at once spiritual and physical as his massive face rises amid the throng.
Credit
T. Marshall Hahn CollectionImage Copyright
© Howard Finster/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York