The two full-length Lansdowne type' portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, exhibited side by side at the National portrait Gallery in Washington, offer an opportunity for comparison with another version which has hung in the White House since 1800. The two versions in the National portrait Gallery exhibition were both commissioned by Senator William Bingham of Pennsylvania in 1796. One is now owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine Arts; the other, ordered for the Marquis of Lansdowne, is owned by Lord Rosebery of Scotland. Although art historians agree that those two are superior to all the other Lansdowne versions (including those at the Brooklyn Museum, Catholic University and the Art Institute of Chicago) how the White House portrait ranks is a matter of dispute, in spite of the existence of the bill of sale showing that it was sold to the White House as a Stuart portrait for $800. Stuart is said to have stated that the White House portrait was a copy by a contemporary painter, William Winstanley, but there is no documentary proof of this assertion. furthermore the serious damage and extensive restorations suffered by the White House version make an evaluation of its quality very difficult. See also <i>AA TA 12-372. -- AATA