I've whiled away my Christmas vacation hours fixing up some paintings or photographs of Founding Fathers in clothing and hairstyles of more modern times, suitable to their characters. Here, I've made over George Washington. He had dark brown hair under that white wig or powdered hair we usually see and was considered to be a very attractive man in his younger days. Being over 6 feet tall, he must have cut an impressive figure. Amusingly, I've read a number of articles about the frequent admiration of Washington's muscular thighs in his time. Considering the snug breeches worn back then, skinny thighs would be most unattractive!
I took this painting of George in his middling years, wearing his early Revolutionary War/Colonial army uniform. It features the buff and blue Whig colors.
I left the face untouched, except for a bit of "smoothing" on the rough textures. I added a slightly modern pompadour haircut (which may not be military standard!), and the uniform is one worn by General George Patton during the Second World War. When I put it together, I saw a striking resemblance to the actor Robert Stack, a tall, dark, and handsome leading man in the mid-1900s, but most famous to modern TV viewers as the host of "Unsolved Mysteries". He was also the original Elliott Ness in "The Untouchables" television show.
