Stuart painted his most famous image of Washington, the so-called ‘Athenaeum Portrait’ as it belongs to the Boston Athenaeum, was commissioned by Martha Washington, the sitter's husband, in March 1796 for Mount Vernon, but remained unfinished. Like so many versions of this much-copied portrait, this one reduces the format but completes the image. It is of very high quality and was probably acquired by Queen Victoria. This was a less surprising purchase than may at first appear, not just because of improved relations with the United States, but because Washington was a character almost universally admired in Britain from the outset, as much for his command as for the simplicity with which he relinguished it.