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Gilbert Stuart
1755-1828
Gilbert Stuart was born in North Kingston, R.I., on Dec. 3, 1755. At the age of 13 or 14 he studied art with the Scottish painter Cosmo Alexander in Newport. With Alexander he made a tour of the South and a journey to Edinburgh, where Alexander died in 1772. For about a year Stuart remained, poverty-stricken, in Scotland, but finally, working as a sailor, he managed to get back to America. There he executed a few portraits in a hard limner fashion. With the Revolutionary War threatening, his family, who had Tory sympathies, fled to Nova Scotia, and Stuart sailed for London, where he remained from 1775 to 1787. For the first 4 or 5 years, Stuart served as the first assistant of American expatriate painter Benjamin West, who had rescued him from poverty. From the first, Stuart showed an interest only in portraiture and had no desire to go into the branch of history painting West practiced. After his apprenticeship, Stuart became London's leading portrait painter, next to Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, whose style he emulated, as in a rare full-length portrait of William Grant of Congalton as The Skater (ca. 1782). For a while Stuart lived in splendor, but being a bad businessman and a profligate spender, he was in constant debt. He lived in Ireland from 1787 to 1792 and then returned to America to make a fortune,
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Painting ID:: 72880
Portrait of Connecticut politician and governor Oliver Wolcott,
Portrait of Connecticut politician and governor Oliver Wolcott, Jr., by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. Oil on canvas. 27 1/2 in. x 23 1/4 in. Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
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Painting ID:: 72901
by the American artist Gilbert Stuart.
"William Woollett," oil on canvas, by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. 35.5 in. x 27.75 in. Courtesy of the Tate Britain. Image courtesy of The Athenaeum.
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Painting ID:: 72902
The Children of the Second Duke of Northumberland
"The Children of the Second Duke of Northumberland," oil on canvas, by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. Private collection. Image courtesy of The Athenaeum.
1787
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Painting ID:: 72923
Colonel David Humphreys
"Colonel David Humphreys (1752-1818), B.A. 1771, M.A. 1774," oil on wood, by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. 38 1/2 in. x 29 1/2 in. Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Mrs. David Humphreys. Yale University, New Haven, Conn
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Painting ID:: 72924
George Washington
"George Washington (1732-1799), L.L.D. 1781," oil on canvas, by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. 29 5/16 in. x 24 1/8 in. Yale University Art Gallery, bequest of Chauncey M. Depew, Jr. Courtesy of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
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Gilbert Stuart
1755-1828
Gilbert Stuart was born in North Kingston, R.I., on Dec. 3, 1755. At the age of 13 or 14 he studied art with the Scottish painter Cosmo Alexander in Newport. With Alexander he made a tour of the South and a journey to Edinburgh, where Alexander died in 1772. For about a year Stuart remained, poverty-stricken, in Scotland, but finally, working as a sailor, he managed to get back to America. There he executed a few portraits in a hard limner fashion. With the Revolutionary War threatening, his family, who had Tory sympathies, fled to Nova Scotia, and Stuart sailed for London, where he remained from 1775 to 1787. For the first 4 or 5 years, Stuart served as the first assistant of American expatriate painter Benjamin West, who had rescued him from poverty. From the first, Stuart showed an interest only in portraiture and had no desire to go into the branch of history painting West practiced. After his apprenticeship, Stuart became London's leading portrait painter, next to Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, whose style he emulated, as in a rare full-length portrait of William Grant of Congalton as The Skater (ca. 1782). For a while Stuart lived in splendor, but being a bad businessman and a profligate spender, he was in constant debt. He lived in Ireland from 1787 to 1792 and then returned to America to make a fortune,
. Related Artists to Gilbert Stuart: | August Jernberg | CORTE, Gabriel de la. | COCK, Paul de | Domingos Sequeira | C. G. hellquist |
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