STONY BROOK, N.Y. - George Washington has long been regarded as America's most accomplished president, the perfect merger of military hero, effective administrator, and great leader.

In honor of the 200th anniversary of his death, and in conjunction with a major traveling exhibition at The Museums at Stony Brook, George Washington: American Symbol presents the many manifestations of Washington the national icon.

On view through May 31, the exhibition "George Washington, American Symbol" explores of the image of George Washington as it has been subjected to political, social, cultural and economic forces, and its resilience as a powerful national symbol. The show was organized by Dr Barbara J. Mitnick, one of the nation's leading authorities on American history painting. Mitnick served as the show's guest curator and general editor of the catalogue.

Tracing images of the Revolutionary War commander and first president, the exhibition includes approximately 90 paintings, prints, sculptures, decorative objects and memorabilia created over a period of 200 years. The show was produced by The Museums at Stony Brook in collaboration with the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, Mass.

Through lifetime portrayals of Washington in painting and sculpture, "George Washington, American Symbol" explores the glorification of his image in the early 1800s and its increasing commercial uses. By the mid-Nineteenth Century, Washington's formerly magisterial figure was humanized. He was once again deified Colonial Revival.

Works by Eighteenth Century artists Gilbert Stuart and Charles Willson Peale are on view, including Stuart's well-known "Athenaeum" and "Vaughan" portraits. Twentieth Century versions of the Washington image range from the Colonial Revival renderings of J.L.G. Ferris, Norman Rockwell and N.C.Wyeth to the more contemporary visions of Robert Arneson, Larry Rivers, Robert Colescott and Komar & Melamid.

The exhibition also features examples of sculpture based on the Eighteenth century life mask taken by the French sculptor, Houdon, and later works by the American sculptors Thomas Crawford and John Quincy Adams Ward. Also included are a number of examples of Washington's image on ceramics, glass and furniture, along with popular books and images of various works of art.

Lenders to the exhibition include the Albany Institute of History & Art; the American Numismatic Society, New York; the Bayou Bend Collection, Houston; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va.; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art; the National Museum of American History; the New York Public Library; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the US Military Academy, West Point; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Delaware.

George Washington: American Symbol presents essays by authorities in art history, history, and sociology covering every aspect of Washington as visual phenomenon. In "Life Portraits of George Washington," David Meschutt weighs the various depictions of the founding father that range from the highly realistic to very idealistic. As Meschutt, a curator of art at the West Point Museum, concludes, "Gilbert Stuart's `Atheneum' portrait has greater merit as a work of art than as a correct visual record of Washington's features. Charles Willson Peale was not Stuart's equal as a painter, but his portraits are more accurate depictions of the subject's appearance. Houdon's bust and statue excel both as art and as portraiture. These great varieties of representation, for all their differences, have much in common - a sense of dignity, of seriousness, even melancholy; and all of Washington's life portraits reflect their creators' consciousness of the man as a hero."

In "An Icon Preserved: Continuity in the Sculptural Image of Washington," H. Nichols B. Clark argues that the leader's visage communicates "time-honored messages of strength, benevolence, and veneration." Clark was formerly curator of American art at the Chrysler Museum. His book, A Marble Quarry: The James H. Ricau Collection of Sculpture at the Chrysler Museum of Art was published in 1997.

Curator Barbara J. Mitnick explores the president in word and deed in an essay entitled "Parallel Visions: The Literary and Visual Image of George Washington." Notes Mitnick, "Washington's posthumous images virtually replaced the religious icons of the Old World. America had succeeded in establishing a secular hero, idolized in both the literary and the visual arts." Mitnick, an independent art historian and curator, is co-author of Picturing History: American Painting 1770-1930 (1993).

In "Washington as The Master of His Lodge: History and Symbolism of A Masonic Icon," William D. Moore and John D. Hamilton discusses the venerable tradition, which began during his lifetime and continues today, of Masonic portraits of the leader. In them, Washington is presented as an ideal of virtuous, patriarchal authority and social involvement. Moore is director of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library and Museum of Grand Lodge, New York. Hamilton is curator at the Museum of Our National Heritage.

In "At Home with George: Commercialization of the Washington Image, 1776-1876," William Ayres writes, "George Washington surely holds the record for the number of times the image of a historical figure has appeared on goods made for the American home...His image came to be used as a tool of legitimation...an integral part of what being `American' was all about." Ayres, project director of the George Washington: American Symbol exhibition, formerly directed the Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York. He is now chief curator, director of collections and interpretation at the Museums at Stony Brook. Ayres co-authored Picturing History: American Painting 1770-1930.

In "The Marketing of an Icon, Raymond H. Robinson explores the lives of artists who supported themselves with depictions of Washington. As Robinson writes, "In the year of the 1876 centennial and for several decades afterward - a period known today as the Colonial Revival - George Washington perfectly symbolized for these Americans both the nation's past and its hopes for the future." Robinson is a professor at Northeastern University.

"George Washington: A New Man for a New Century" by Barry Schwartz concerns Washington's reputation during the Nineteenth Century, culminating in the observance of the centennial of his death one hundred years ago. "He remained the only national hero on whose merits all Americans - Southerners as well as Northerners, Democrats as well as Republicans - could agree...And this is why he was the only American hero commemorated by a death centennial." Schwartz is professor of sociology at the University of Georgia, Athens.

"Hero, Celebrity, and Cliche: The Modern and Postmodern Image of George Washington" by Mark Thistlethwaite documents our century's approach to Washington. A spectrum of work by N.C. Wyeth and Grant Wood in the 1930s to artists on the Internet is considered. Thistlethwaite is professor of art history at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

Published by Hudson Hills Press and distributed by National Book Network, George Washington: American Symbol retails for $35 hardcover. Hudson Hills Press is at 122 East 25th Street, fifth floor, in New York City. Telephone 212/674-6005.

Following its close at The Museums at Stony Brook, "George Washington, American Symbol" will travel to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Penn., from June 11 to September 6; and to the Museum of Our National Heritage from October 10, 1999 to February 27, 2000.

The Museums at Stony Brook are at 1208 Route 25A in Stony Brook, N.Y. Telephone 516/751-0066.