Gilbert Charles Sluarl, who has acquired an imperishable name in American art, was born at Narragansett, in Rhode Island, in 1756, and died in Boston in ISA He had the good fortune to attract the atten tion of Cosmo Alexander, a Scotch artist, by whom, when about eighteen years of age, lie was taken to Edinburgh and placed under the tuition of Sir George Chambers. But young Stuart, on account of the death of his patron, Alexander, did not remain long in Edinburgh: lie returned to America, working his passage home before the mast, and began portrait painting at Newport, Rhode Island. lie subsequently removed to Boston, and thence to New York, and in 1778 set sail for London, where for two years lie had little success and suffered greatly from poverty; but, making the acquaintance of his countryman Benjamin West, lie was taken as pupil into the studio of that artist and received from him valuable assist ance. Stuart's career thenceforward was one of prosperity. His natural genius for color led him to take hints from Sir Joshua Reynolds rather than from \Vest, and his superb coloring, so far as it suggests any school, is that of Reynolds and Gainshorough.
The reputation of Stuart soon rivalled that of those eminent portrait painters, and among the numerous distinguished personages who sat to him was Louis XVI. In 1793 he finally returned to America—none too
soon, as it proved, for lie was thus able to produce those superb portraits of President Washington and Martha Washington which the country has accepted as part of the national treasures to bequeath to all generations. Numerous other portraits of our leading statesmen, generals, and queens of society are found in many of our galleries to perpetuate the genius of the greatest of American portrait-painters. The character of Stuart was one of marked peculiarities, and offers points of interest and picturesque individuality scarcely equalled by that of any other American artist. The canny shrewdness of his Scotch temperament was mellowed almost to the point of absurd incongruity by the warm and supple traits of his Welsh ancestry. He was noted as a raconiczer and for his skill with the violin.
The style of Stuart was undoubtedly the offspring of original genius. He availed himself of hints from the leaders of the British school, but his methods produced results entirely his own. As a colorist he has never been surpassed in the history of portraiture; he was able to impart the effect of atmosphere, and such was the purity of his color that time seems to have no effect upon it. Sometimes lie painted thinly, and then, again, lie loaded his colors.