STUART, Gilbert, American painter: b. Narragansett, R. I., 3 Dec. 1755; d. Boston, 27 July 1828. He was a portrait painter and be gan at the age of 13. In 1775 he paid his second visit to England where Benjamin West recog nized his talent, took him into his home and gave him instruction in art. Eventually obtain ing much favor and distinction in London he painted portraits of George III, George IV while prince of Wales, Mrs. Siddons, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, and at Paris had Louis XVI as sitter. His great ambition, how ever, was to practise his art in his own country and he returned to the United States 1792 and opened a studio first in New York; subsequently in Philadelphia, where he painted Washington in 1795. This was the first of a series of por traits of the °Father of his Country" by Stuart. There are still extant six half-face portraits from the same sitting, painted from the right. The famous °Athenmum portrait° now in the Boston Museum, was produced about 1796 and takes the left half face of the sitter. Some
where about the same time he painted a full length portrait of Washington for the Marquis of Lansdowne. Nearly 40 copies made by him from the original of various sittings are now in existence. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Stuart is represented by six pic tures, namely 'Washington> (two portraits) ; 'John Jay' ; 'Captain Henry Rice' ; David Sears) ' • 'Commodore Isaac Hull.> He also painted the first five Presidents of the United States; Edward Everett, Jacob Astor; Judge Story; W. E. Charming; Josiah and Edmund Quincy and 0. H. Perry. The characteristics of Stuart's portraits are fine coloring and life like expression. Though he has been charged with incorrectness of drawing, he ranks with some of the best portrait painters of the Eng lish-American school. Consult Mason, 'Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart) (1879) ; Isham, S., 'History of American Painting' (New York 1915).