Details

Title

George Washington, #6,903

Artist/Maker

Howard Finster (American, 1916–2001)

Date

1987

Medium

Paint on board

Dimensions

48 x 48 1/8 inches

Credit

T. Marshall Hahn Collection

Accession #

1997.71

On View

On View - Stent Family Wing, Skyway, Gallery 407

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.

Image Copyright

© Howard Finster/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York