| Gilbert Stuart | ||
| Birth Date: December 3, 1755 |
||
| Death Date: July 9, 1828 Artist Gallery |
||
| Possibly America's best-known portrait painter, Gilbert Stuart captured the essential personality of his subjects. He was the son of a snuff-mill owner in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Of Scottish descent, he had the baptismal name of Gilbert Stewart but changed it to the Jacobite spelling, wanting to be associated in name with the royal Stuart family of England.
When the mill failed, the Stewart family moved to Newport, Rhode Island where the young Gilbert took early training from local portraitist Samuel King. In 1769, his early talent for drawing was recognized by Cosmo Alexander, with whom he traveled in the Southern Colonies and then to Edinburgh, Scotland. But Alexander died, and the penniless Stuart had to work his way back to America as a seaman. In 1775, on the eve of the Battle of Bunker Hill, he again sailed to London. He spent five years studying art with expatriate court painter, Benjamin West who taught Stuart many of the skills he acquired in portrait painting, especially the painting of realistic, animated faces--glowing light against dark background-- for which Stuart became known.
Stuart was a temperamental, hard-living man who lived way beyond his means, which left him and his family in impoverished circumstances. In 1792, he returned to America and became the most highly regarded portraitist of his day with nearly everyone in prominence in the government becoming one of his subjects. Always low on money and known for erratic behavior, which some attributed to his genius, he remained ever pursued by his creditors. He is buried in Boston in an unmarked pauper’s grave.
Gilbert Stuart is most noted for his portrait of George Washington, which is on the American dollar bill.
|
||