biography of Gilbert STUART (1755-1828)

Birth place: North Kingstown, RI

Death place: Boston, MA

Profession: Portrait painter

Studied: began painting at an early age, taking lessons from Samual King in Newport about 1761; Cosmo Alexander, 1769-72

Exhibited: Royal Acad., London; NAD, 1828; PAFA, 1811-28 (and posthumously); Brooklyn AA, 1864, 1872, 1912; Boston AC, 1878

Member: Am. Acad.; NAD (hon. mem., 1830)

Work: NGA, Wash., DC (Vaughn Portrait" and "Lansdowne Portrait" of G. Washington); BMFA ("Athenaeum Portrait" of Washington, on deposit from Boston Athenaeum); PAFA (replica ,"Lansdowne Portrait"); Brooklyn Mus (replica ,"Lansdowne Portrait"); White House (replica ,"Lansdowne Portrait"); NPG, Wash, DC; NPG, London; MMA ("Matilda Stoughton de Jaudens" 1794); Athenaeum, Newport, RI"

Comments: One of the most important portrait painters of colonial America and the early Republic. In 1769 he met the visiting Scottish artist, Cosmo Alexander (see entry), at Newport, RI, who was convinced by a local doctor to make Stuart (then only fourteen years old) his apprentice. The two worked in Philadelphia (1770-71) and then traveled south in 1771, briefly visiting Williamsburg, VA, and Charleston, SC, before departing for Edinburgh (Scotland). Alexander died suddenly in August 1772 and Stuart was stranded in Edinburgh for a short time, but eventually earned his way back to his Rhode Island home in 1773. For the next two years he painted portraits in Newport but in 1775, just before the colonies claimed independence, he left for London. There he found the competition for society portraits to be heavy and he struggled for several years until he joined the studio of fellow expatriate Benjamin West. From 1777-82 he was both assistant and student in West's studio, focusing his attention on face painting while West worked at his grand history paintings. Stuart also absorbed the lessons he learned from the work of Joshua Reynolds and Gainsborough, developing what would become his own philosophy and working method for portrait making. Setting up his own studio in 1782, Stuart achieved considerable success, earning almost immediate recognition when his full-length Skater" (1782, NGA) captured great public interest at the Royal Academy showing of 1782. But it was portraiture that Stuart loved and what kept him in high demand in London. Despite his success, he left for Ireland in 1787 when he became embroiled in debt. Living in Dublin, he built up a large and devoted following until debt again drove him out, this time back to the U.S., in 1792. From 1793-94, Stuart worked in NYC and Philadelphia; from 1794-1803 in Germantown, PA; from 1803-05 he was in Washington, DC; in 1805 at Bordentown, NJ; and the rest of his life was spent in Boston. In late 1794, Stuart painted the first of three life portraits of George Washington (these include "The Vaughn" Portrait, 1794-95, reproduced on the American dollar bill; the "Athenaeum" Portrait, 1796; and the full-length "Lansdowne" Portrait, 1796); from these three portraits, he painted 104 known likenesses of the President. In addition to his Washington portraits, other great portraits include "Mrs. Richard Yates" (1793, NGA) and "Mrs. Perez Morton." Stuart worked without preliminary drawing, painting directly on the canvas and laying in layers of luminous color washes with a loose, slashing brush stroke. The resulting spontaneity and his ability to capture the particular character of the sitter was what made him fashionable and unique in his day. Identification of his portraits painted in Ireland and England, as well as a number of unfinished works, is problematic.

Sources: G&W; Whitley, Gilbert Stuart (1932); and Flexner, Gilbert Stuart (1955); Park, Gilbert Stuart, an Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue (1926); Morgan, Gilbert Stuart and His Pupils; Jane Stuart, "Anecdotes of Gilbert Stuart by His Daughter," Scribner's Monthly Magazine (July 1877): 377. More recently, see Gilbert Stuart: Portraitist of the Young Republic (exh. cat., Wash., DC: National Gallery of Art, 1967); Baigell, Dictionary; 300 Years of American Art, 64-65; Liz Smith, "The Artist as Magpie" Art & Auction (May, 1986), p.107; Falk, Exh. Record Series. "