Gilbert Stuart was one of the great American portraitists of the 18th century. He is known for the meticulous and idealized portraits of the notable personalities of the period. Stuart created the iconic image of George Washington as the Father of His Country.
Background
Ethnicity:
Gilbert Stuart’s father immigrated from Scotland and his mother came from Middletown, Rhode Island, United States.
Gilbert Stuart, born as Gilbert Charles Stewart, came to the world on December 3, 1755, in Saunderstown village (currently the part of North Kingston town), Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (currently Rhode Island, United States). He was a third child of Gilbert Stewart, a worker in the snuff-making industry, and Elizabeth Anthony. The first snuff mill in America appertained to Stuart’s father.
When Gilbert was a six-year-old child, his family relocated to Newport city where the boy spent his childhood. He revealed his drawing abilities at an early age.
Education
Gilbert Stuart had been taught by a painter from Scotland Cosmo Alexander in Newport from 1770 for two years.
In 1775, Stuart relocated to the United Kingdom where he became an apprentice of a historical painter Benjamin West. Stuart spent in West’s studio about six years.
Career
In 1771, Stuart moved to Scotland with Scottish artist Cosmo Alexander to finish his studies; however, Alexander died in Edinburgh one year later. Stuart tried to maintain a living and pursue his painting career, but to no avail, so he returned to Newport in 1773.
After some time spent in the country, he followed his family in the way for the United Kingdom and settled down in London where he participated at the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1777.
While in the city, Stuart had served as an assistant at the studio of the Benjamin West till about 1781. The following year, the artist opened his own studio and started to receive the portrait commissions from painters, engravers and aristocrats.
Stuart obtained the first acclaim from the public for his debut full-length portrait titled ‘The Skater’ on which he depicted William Grant. The critics appreciated Stuart’s talent to show the character of his models through the canvas.
Although the artist had popularity among the public and enough commissions, Gilbert Stuart was neglectful of his money. The invitation of 1787 to work for a commission in Dublin became an opportunity for the artist to escape the creditors. He lived in Ireland from 1787 to 1792 and then returned to America to make a fortune, he said, by painting Washington's portrait. He worked briefly in New York City, then moved for some time in Philadelphia where he portrayed many important Americans, including his famous pictures of George Washington. Working on the president’s portraits, the artist also received a lot of commissions from Washington’s supporters.
After, Stuart spent some time in Washington, D.C. where among his notable sitters was Thomas Jefferson.
In 1805, Gilbert Stuart permanently established his studio in Boston accepting the invitation of the Massachusetts’s senator Jonathan Mason.
While in the city, the artist portrayed such local personalities as Paul Revere, Josiah Quincy, Lydia Smith and others. He exhibited in Doggett's Repository and Julien Hall. Many young artists including John Trumbul, Thomas Sully, Washington Allston and John Vanderlyn tried to receive some lessons or advices from Stuart.
One of the last portraits Gilbert Stuart done was the portrait of John Adams.
Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis(Washington’s granddaughter)
Matthew Clarkson
Louis-Marie, Vicomte de Noailles
James Monroe
Views
Quotations:
"Never be sparing of colour, load your pictures, but keep your colours as separate as you can. No blending, this destruction to clear and beautiful effect."
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"Speaking generally, 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 constantly amused by his conversation." John Adams, the second President of the United States
Interests
Artists
John Singleton Copley, Thomas Gainsborough
Connections
Gilbert Stuart married Charlotte Coates on May 10, 1786. He was thirteen years older than her. The marriage produced twelve children, five of them had died by 1815. Two more children died in their youth.
One of Stuart’s daughters named Jane followed her father’s steps and became a painter. In 2011, she was included in the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
Gilbert Stuart
A comprehensive life of the accomplished portraitist of the new Republic from his early youth in Rhode Island to his famous painting of Washington
1986
On Desperate Seas: A Biography of Gilbert Stuart
James T. Flexner presents us Gilbert Stuart’s portraits constructed as the artist would have constructed them, frank, without flattery, profound, and soul-stirring
1995
The Genius of Gilbert Stuart
Dorinda Evans combines a wealth of original insights with revealing new documentation to present a long-needed, scholarly treatment of Stuart's life and influential work