Gilbert Stuart
American, 1755 - 1828
SchoolPortraiture
Biography(b North Kingston, RI, 3 Dec 1755; d Boston, MA, 9 July 1828). American painter, active also in England and Ireland. The son of a snuff grinder, he grew up in Newport, RI. His innate talent for drawing was such that in his early teens he was engaged to paint Dr William Hunter's Spaniels (c. 1765; Hunter House, Newport, RI, Preservation Soc.)
During the summer of 1769 young Stuart travelled with the Scottish artist Cosmo Alexander (b c. 1724) on his tour of the South and ultimately to Edinburgh. In August 1772, Alexander died and a friendless Stuart had to work his way home. Back in Newport, he won a number of commissions. These included portraits of John Bannister, Mrs John Bannister and their son John, Abraham Redwood and Jacob Rodriguez Rivera (all 1773-5; Newport, RI, Redwood Lib.), in a hard-edged style very different from the fluid style of his maturity.
From September 1775 until 1787 Stuart was in London; early in 1775 he entered the studio of Benjamin West, for whom he painted drapery and finished portraits in return for half a guinea a week. John Trumbull, who came to West's studio while Stuart was there, commented that West commenced a course of drawing, but that Stuart 'never could exercise the patience necessary to correct drawing'. Stuart exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in the spring of 1787. His first full-length portrait was of William Grant, the Portrait of a Gentleman Skating (1782; Washington, DC, N.G.A.), shown in 1782. Its fluent brushwork and unconventional pose, indebted to English artists such as Romney, brought him recognition in the press and belied the prevailing opinion that Stuart 'made a tolerable likeness of a face, but as to the figure, he could not get below the fifth button'.
Stuart maintained an expensive London establishment and had considerable success as a fashionable portrayer of the English and various Americans who found themselves in London. However, in 1787 Stuart fled to Dublin perhaps to escape his creditors. Stuart remained in Ireland for five years, where he painted several majestic full-length portraits, including one of John Fitzgibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, who was then Lord Chancellor of Ireland (1789; Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.), and numerous bust portraits, in three-quarter frontal pose. In the spring of 1793, after 18 years abroad, Stuart returned to America, leaving behind scores of unfinished canvases.
On his arrival at New York, one lady noted in her diary that Stuart was 'an extraordinary limner, said to excel by far any other in America'. Over the next 18 months Stuart executed some of his most meticulous portraits. Although he proclaimed 'I copy the works of God, and leave clothes to tailors and mantua-makers', his portraits of the modestly-dressed Mrs Richard Yates (Catherine Brass) (1793-4; Washington, DC, N.G.A.; see fig.) and of the elaborately attired Matilda Stoughton de Jaudenes y Nebot (1794; New York, Met.), wife of the Spanish chargé d'affaires, were rendered in fine detail.
Late in 1794 or early the next year, Stuart travelled to Philadelphia, where, during 1795, George Washington posed for him; the resulting portrait, showing the right side of the President's face, has been dubbed the 'Vaughan-type' after Samuel Vaughan, one of the many who ordered copies; only a few of these were ever executed. Washington sat again for Stuart, facing left, on 12 April 1796; the head (unfinished) was purchased by the Boston Athenaeum shortly after the impoverished artist's death (Washington, DC, N.P.G.; Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.). This portrait Stuart used for all his subsequent likenesses of Washington. He replicated it over and over again as a bust portrait and in full lengths known as the 'Lansdowne-type', after Lord Lansdowne, for whom a full-length portrait was commissioned by William Bingham (Lord Rosebery priv. col., on loan to Washington, DC, N.P.G.). There were also variations on the portrait, as well as Washington at Dorchester Heights (1806; Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.).
In December 1803, Stuart moved to the new capital at Washington. 'Stuart is all the rage', it was reported in May 1804. 'He is almost worked to death, and everybody is afraid that they will be the last to be finished'. President Thomas Jefferson, who first sat for Stuart in Philadelphia in 1800, posed again, at the artist's request, in 1805, but Stuart delivered his portrait only in 1821 (Monticello, VA, Jefferson Found.; Washington, DC, N.P.G.). It took 18 years for him to complete his portrait of Abigail Adams (c. 1800-18; Washington, DC, N.G.A.). She wrote: 'There is no knowing how to take hold of this man, nor by what means to prevail upon him to fulfill his engagements.'
Stuart visited Boston in 1805. There he remained for the rest of his life, both delighting and exasperating his clients. Many artists sought his advice; these included John Trumbull, William Dunlap, Thomas Sully, Washington Allston, John Vanderlyn and Samuel F. B. Morse; after his death they drew up a resolution naming him the father of American portraiture. Stuart told Matthew Harris Jouett, 'Never be sparing of colour, load your pictures, but keep your colours as separate as you can. No blending, tis destruction to clear & bea[u]tiful effect.' Stuart advised, 'Short and chopping strokes are preferable to swashing handling. The last order of style is apt to toughen the skin, and render it wormy.' (Source: MARGARET C. S. CHRISTMAN, "Gilbert Stuart," The Grove Dictionary of Art Online (Oxford University Press) Accessed March 28, 2004) http://www.groveart.com
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