White House Complex

On 24 August 1814, with British troops marching on Washington in the War of 1812, the first lady Dolley Madison refused to leave the President's House until one thing was safe: a full-length portrait of George Washington by the American painter Gilbert Stuart. The frame was screwed to the dining-room wall, so the staff broke it out and carried the canvas away, and hours later British soldiers set fire to the house.

The building was rebuilt, and that Washington still hangs in the East Room, the one furnishing known to have survived the burning. The White House is first of all the home and office of the president rather than a public gallery, but across two centuries it has gathered a collection of American painting and portraiture that visitors on the public tour walk through. Look closely at Stuart's picture and one of the painted books under the table reads "United Sates", a misspelling the painter left in.