Gilbert Stuart - American Artist

Gilbert Charles Stuart was born in Stewart on December 3, 1755 - July 9, 1828 was an American painter. Born in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, he grew up in Newport and was tutored by Cosmo Alexander, a Scottish painter. Stuart moved to Scotland with Alexander in 1771 to finish his studies. His mentor died in Edinburgh the following year. Attempting briefly and without success to earn a living as a painter, he returned to Newport in 1773. Stuart’s prospects as a portraitist were jeopardized by the onset of the American Revolution and its social disruption.


Following the example set by John Singleton Copley, Stuart departed for England in 1775. Unsuccessful at first in pursuit of his vocation, he then became a protégé of Benjamin West, with whom he studied for the after that six years. The relationship was a useful with Stuart exhibiting at the Royal Academy as early as 1777. By 1782 Stuart had met with success, mainly due to acclaim for “The Skater,” a portrait of William Grant. At one point the prices for his pictures were exceeded only by those of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.


In spite of his many commissions, however, Stuart was habitually neglectful of finances and was in danger of being sent to debtors’ prison. In 1787 he fled to Ireland, where he painted and accumulated debt with equal vigor. In 1803 Stuart open a studio in Washington, D. C. By the end of his career he had taken the likenesses of over a thousand American political figures.


He was praised for the vitality and naturalness of his portraits, and his subjects found his company agreeable. “Speaking generally,” said John Adams, “no penance is like having one’s picture done. You must sit in a constrained and unnatural position, which is a trial to the temper. But I should like to sit to Stuart from the first of January to the last of December, for he lets me do just what I please, and keeps me continually amused by his conversation.” Stuart worked without the aid of sketches, beginning directly upon the canvas.









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