STUART, GILBERT

born Dec. 3, 1755, North Kingstown, R.I. died July 9, 1828, Boston, Mass. in full Gilbert Charles Stuart American painter, one of the great portrait painters of his era and the creator of a distinctively American portrait style. Stuart grew up in Newport, R.I., where he learned the rudiments of painting. About 1771 he accompanied Cosmo Alexander, a Scotch painter visiting Newport, to Edinburgh, returning to Rhode Island a year later. In 1775 he went to London and entered the studio of the American artist Benjamin West, with whom he worked for about six years. His mature style owes more, however, to Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds than to West. In 1782 he opened his own London studio and for five years enjoyed great success, but in 1787 he fled to Dublin to escape his creditors. After six years in Ireland he returned to the United States, where he quickly established himself as the nation's leading portrait painter. He lived in New York City for a short time and moved to Philadelphia, where he lived for about 12 years. He finally settled in Boston in 1805. Stuart's work was hailed by his contemporaries, and subsequent critics have confirmed this judgment, especially praising its painterly brushwork, luminous colour, and psychological penetration. Of his nearly 1,000 portraits, undoubtedly the most famous is the unfinished head of George Washington (1796) at the Boston Athenaeum. Other fine portraits are those of Mrs. Richard Yates, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Perez Morton, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass.; and John Adams, privately owned. Although Stuart had no formal pupils, many young artists, including John Vanderlyn, Thomas Sully, and John Neagle, availed themselves of the advice he freely gave. Less talented artists, including his own daughter Jane, simply reduced his style to a formula that gave a Stuartesque appearance to much American portraiture of the succeeding generation.