My favorite painting.

There’s one painting I have to see every time I visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and you’ll never guess what it is.

Washington at Dorchester Heights, 1806
Oil on panel

Gilbert Stuart
American, 1755-1828

Commissioned by Samuel Parkman and gifted to the town of Boston on the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence

Deposited by the City of Boston
On display at the Museum of Fine Arts

Photographed July 22, 2026

Maybe you guessed it. Did you guess it? This painting has lived rent-free in my head for years, but it wasn’t until recently that I really dug into why. First off, I want to say that the only good George Washington is Christopher Jackson. Next I’ll say that, of course, the giant horse butt caught my eye immediately. However, I’m currently working on my final project for an Introduction to the World of Art class in which I have to identify works of art that represent me and talk about why. Why does this painting of George Washington, a man I love to criticize, speak to me so loudly?

The scale is overwhelming — at nearly 10 feet tall, this is a larger-than-life representation of this Founding Father and his horse, Blueskin. A quick Google search tells me that Washington was 6’ 2” tall, so actually maybe Washington would have nearly filled the canvas if he were to lay down on it. So you have a giant man, and a giant horse butt, and the light is bouncing off the horse butt so you look from Washington’s face then your eye is drawn to the butt then you follow the line to the horse’s face but the horse is looking at Washington so you look back to Washington (who is not as handsome as Christopher Jackson) and back to the butt and you’re just in this cycle of face > face > butt > face > face > butt. The horse is trying to run away, but Washington is holding tight to his bridle so he can’t leave. Washington stands proud while the smoke of battle fills the air behind him. We have all been Washington (metaphorically) and we have all been the horse (hopefully metaphorically).

The story behind this painting is that the architect of the newly-built Faneuil Hall in Boston wanted to have a portrait of Washington on display, but the only one they had at the time was painted by a European artist, which the patriots obviously objected to. Businessman Samuel Parkman, a real estate magnate, commissioned this painting from Stuart Gilbert. Gilbert used an unfinished head portrait of Washington as a reference and had several friends stand in for different body parts. The painting was finished in 10 days, just in time for the 30th anniversary celebration. I could not finish a 10’ painting in 10 days and expect it to be worthy of hanging in a public venue. If you want to learn more about this painting and its history, click here to visit Parkman Geneaology.

And that, my friends, is my favorite painting. It really is mostly about the giant horse butt.