Gilbert Stuart Totally Explained

Everything about Gilbert Stuart totally explained

Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island.
Gilbert Stuart is widely considered to be one of America's foremost portraitists.
Throughout his career, Gilbert Stuart produced portraits of over 1,000 people, including the first six Presidents of the United States. His work can be found today at art museums across the United States and the United Kingdom, most notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Biography

Early life

Gilbert Stuart was born in Saunderstown, Rhode Island in 1755. He was the third son of Gilbert Stewart, a Scottish immigrant employed in the snuff-making industry, and Elizabeth Anthony Stewart, a member of a prominent land-owning family from Middletown, Rhode Island.
Gilbert Stuart moved to Newport, Rhode Island at the age of seven, where his father pursued work in the merchant field. In Newport, Stuart first began to show great promise as a painter. He was tutored by Cosmo Alexander, a Scottish painter. Under the guidance of Alexander, Stuart painted the famous portrait Dr. Hunter's Spaniels, which hangs today in the Hunter House Manison in Newport, when he was 12-years-old.
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.

England and Ireland

Stuart's prospects as a portraitist were jeopardized by the onset of the American Revolution and its social disruptions. 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 protegé of Benjamin West, with whom he studied for the next six years. The relationship was a beneficial one, with Stuart exhibiting at the Royal Academy as early as 1777.

New York and Philadelphia

Stuart returned to the United States in 1793, settling briefly in New York City. In 1795 he moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, near (and now part of) Philadelphia, where he opened a studio. It was here that he'd gain not only a foothold in the art world, but lasting fame with pictures of many important Americans of the day.
Stuart painted George Washington in a series of iconic portraits, each of them leading in turn to a demand for copies and keeping Stuart busy and highly paid for years. The most famous and celebrated of these likenesses, known as The Athenaeum, is currently portrayed on the United States one dollar bill. Stuart, along with his daughters, painted a total of 130 reproductions of The Athenaeum. However, Stuart never completed the original version; after finishing Washington's face, the artist kept the original version to make the copies. He sold up to 70 of his reproductions for a price of US$100 each, but the original portrait was left unfinished at the time of Stuart's death in 1828.

Death in Boston

Stuart moved to Boston in 1805, continuing in critical acclaim and financial troubles. In 1824 he suffered a stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. Nevertheless, Stuart continued to paint for two years until his death in Boston at the age of 72. He was buried in the Old South Burial Ground of the Boston Common. As Stuart left his family deeply in debt, his wife and daughters were unable to purchase a grave site. Stuart was therefore buried in an unmarked grave which was purchased cheaply from Benjamin Howland, a local carpenter. When Stuart's family recovered from their financial troubles roughly ten years later, they planned to move his body to a family cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island. However, since his family couldn't remember the exact location of Stuart's body, it was never moved.

Controversy

At present there's some debate as to the identity of the sitter for one of Stuart's unfinished portraits. In 1878 "John Bill Ricketts" was identified by George Washington Riggs, also known as "The President's Banker," and trustee for the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as "Breschard, the Circus Rider" and as ""Breschard" was publicly displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1880. In 1970 the National Gallery of Art changed the identification from "Breschard" " to "Ricketts" and to this day the NGA has failed to explain the reason for this identity change.

Legacy

By the end of his career, Gilbert Stuart had taken the likenesses of over one thousand American political and social figures. He was praised for the vitality and naturalness of his portraits, and his subjects found his company agreeable:

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.

Stuart was known for working without the aid of sketches, beginning directly upon the canvas. This was very unusual for the time period.
His works can be found today at art museums throughout the United States and Great Britain, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

John Singleton Copley - American colonial portraitist

Horatio Gates - American Revolutionary War general

King George III - King of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1760 - 1820

John Jay - First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Thomas Jefferson - Third President of the United States

King Louis XVI - King of France, 1774 - 1792

James Madison - Fourth President of the United States

James Monroe - Fifth President of the United States

John Bill Ricketts - Founder of first circus in the United States

George Washington - First President of the United States

Martha Washington - First First Lady of the United States, wife of George Washington

Benjamin West - American painter

Catherine Brass Yates - Philadelphia socialiteFurther Information

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