Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Stuart was an American portrait artist who lived from 1755 to 1828. He is considered America’s foremost portrait painter, and his portrait of President George Washington is probably the most recognizable presidential portrait to date.
Stuart began painting at an early age, learning under the Scottish portrait artist, Cosmo Alexander. The Revolutionary War was bad for business so in 1775 he left America for England to try and find work. While in England, he continued his studies, working under the portrait artist, Benjamin West, and even exhibiting his art at the Royal Academy of Art. His first full-length portrait, The Skater, propelled his career. Though he was making good money, Stuart never really got a hold of his finances.
After acquiring debt and a new wife, Stuart moved back to America in 1792. He opened a new office and began his portraits of well-known American politicians. Stuart was a well-respected artist his whole life, but he was never able to escape debt and he suffered from depression which would keep him in bed for weeks at at time. He suffered a stroke in 1824. Though it left him partially paralyzed, he continued to work. Gilbert Stuart passed away in Boston, Massachusetts at the age of 72. His extreme debt made his family unable to purchase a headstone at the time, so he was buried in an unmarked plot in within the city limits and remains there to this day.
During his lifetime, Gilbert Stuart painted over 1,000 portraits of prominent citizens and politicians, including the first six Presidents. Apparently, Stuart’s subjects didn’t mind the long hours sitting while he worked. President John Adams has said of Stuart: “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’s methodology for his portraits included forgoing initial sketches, and opting instead to start right on the canvas, which was uncommon of in his day. He also blended colors as little as possible on the canvas, as he believed the separate colors were what made the portraits luminous. Stuart was a man beholden to his passions, and he continually left pieces unfinished, or quickly finished them up as he often grew bored.
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