Benjamin Tappan), 1814, Boston merchant and his wife, a grandniece of Benjamin Franklin William Robinson), about 1812, stepdaughter of Martha Washington's son, John Parke Custisīenjamin Tappan and Sarah Homes Tappan (Mrs. John Randolph, 1804/1805, thirty-two-year-old Virginia orator whose remarkably youthful appearance belied his position as the most forceful member of the federal CongressĪnne Calvert Stuart Robinson (Mrs. Samuel Alleyne Otis), also in the National Gallery of Art Samuel Alleyne Otis, 1811/1813, Boston merchant in 1764 his bride had posed for a wedding portrait by John Singleton Copley, Elizabeth Gray Otis (Mrs. Robert Liston), 1800, British minister to the United States and his wifeĬommodore Thomas Macdonough, about 1818, naval hero in the War of 1812 who captured the British fleet on Lake Champlain Robert Liston and Henrietta Marchant Liston (Mrs. Lawrence Lewis), about 1805, George Washington's stepgranddaughter, mistress of Woodlawn Plantation outside Alexandria, Virginia she also posed in 1789-1790 for the National Gallery's Washington Family by Edward Savage
Sir John Dick, 1783, Scottish naval officer with a medal from Catherine the Great of RussiaĬounselor John Dunn, about 1798, member of the Irish parliament, painted in PhiladelphiaĮleanor Parke Custis Lewis (Mrs. Horace Binney, 1800, Stuart's close friend, a Philadelphia lawyer Other Stuarts alternate on view in our American or British rooms, including: William Thornton, a pair of portraits of the Capitol's architect and his wife painted in 1804, was once on display at The Octagon House in Washington because that historic building was designed by Thornton. The National Gallery of Art lends many of its forty-one portraits by Stuart to government agencies and other institutions. Nonetheless, Stuart multiplied his successes in Dublin, where he moved in 1787 and gained a monopoly over Irish portraiture before sailing for the new United States in 1793. It depicts Reynolds taking a pinch of snuff, which was simply too undignified for that gentleman's strict, idealizing taste. When Stuart's Sir Joshua Reynolds was shown at the Royal Academy in 1784, the portrait annoyed the sitter who, as president of that cultural institution, was jealous of the young American's rising reputation. Stuart soon commanded prices higher than any portraitist in London except for the court painters Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The painting enlivened England's "Grand Manner" tradition of formal portraiture by depicting Grant in vigorous activity rather than in a static, formal pose. Stuart's own fame took hold when he exhibited The Skater (Portrait of William Grant) at London's Royal Academy of art in 1782. After sailing to London in 1775 he studied under Benjamin West, a Pennsylvanian who had been the first American artist to achieve renown in Europe. Stuart received his earliest artistic training in his native Rhode Island from an itinerant Scottish painter. And Stuart's years in Ireland, both coming and going, had been ploys to escape debtors' prison.
In London, for instance, he had owned a carriage, an unheard-of presumption for a commoner. Though he inevitably commanded high prices, Stuart lived on the verge of bankruptcy throughout his career because of his extravagant lifestyle and inept business dealings. Stuart often was irritatingly slow in completing commissions, in spite of his swift, bravura brushwork. To emphasize facial characterization, he eliminated unnecessary accessories and preferred dark, neutral backgrounds and simple, bust- or half-length formats. A charming conversationalist, Stuart entertained his sitters during long hours of posing to sustain the fresh spontaneity of their expressions.
Before his death at seventy-two, Stuart also taught many followers. In 1805 he settled in Boston and painted the Gibbs-Coolidge Set, the only surviving depiction of all five first presidents. Stuart resided in New York (1793-1795) Philadelphia (1795-1803), where he did his first portrait of George Washington and the new capital at Washington, D.C.
He then returned to America with the specific intention of painting President Washington's portrait. Born in Rhode Island, the artist trained and worked in London, England, and Dublin, Ireland, from 1775 to 1793. Because he portrayed virtually all the notable men and women of the Federal period in the United States, Gilbert Stuart was declared the "Father of American Portraiture" by his contemporaries.
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