What’s up with George Washington’s creepy eyes?
By Kevin Litten (Baltimore Business Journal, 7/2/2014)
Photo — Kevin Litten
After getting an up-close look at George Washington’s face Monday at the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon, I kept coming back to the same question.
What’s up with those creepy eyes?
The founding father’s wide, googly-eyed stare was not what I expected. It certainly wasn’t the gentle gaze depicted in the Gilbert Stuart portraits we’ve come to know.
In fact, as I searched for images of people known for, ahem, unusually-oriented eyes, I realized Baltimore’s version of George Washington looks a lot more like the late actor Jack Elam than the father of our country. Elam was known both for his frequent depiction of evil characters in western films, and for having what the New York Times called a “leer, bulging eye” that “conveyed villainy as surely as [Jimmy] Durante’s nose suggested humor.”
Continue reading at Baltimore Business Journal.
Previously: Here’s what George Washington’s face looks like up close on Baltimore’s Washington Monument
