By far the country’s best portraitist following the Revolutionary War, Gilbert Stuart considerably influenced the development of portraiture in America. He is best known for his portraits of George Washington, which have become the standard image of the country’s first president.

Having received some training at an early age by an itinerant Scottish portraitist, Cosmo Alexander (c. 1724-1772), Stuart traveled to Edinburgh with Alexander and then returned to work as a portraitist in Newport, Rhode Island. In September 1775 he left for London, where the inadequacies of the primitive style he had practiced brought him close to starvation. Writing in 1777 to BENJAMIN WEST, he received a warm welcome and spent the next five years in the home of his countryman. By the time he set up his own studio in 1782, he was a stylish portraitist and master of a fluent technique. In 1782 he married Charlotte Coates. Although he was in great demand as one of London’s most fashionable portraitists, Stuart’s extravagant living led to his move to Ireland in 1787 to escape his debtors. Stuart enjoyed even greater success in Dublin but again fell heavily into debt, leaving for America in early 1793. He worked first in New York and then moved in late 1794 to Philadelphia, where he had the opportunity to paint a portrait of George Washington. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1803 and in 1805 to Boston, where he lived until his death in 1828.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
George C. Mason, The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart (New York: Scribner’s, copyright 1879, 1894), with catalogue of works § Lawrence Park, comp., Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works, Compiled by Lawrence Park, with art Account of His Life by John Hill Morgan and an Appreciation by Royal Cortissoz, 4 vols. (New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1926), with lists of owners § John Hill Morgan, Gilbert Stuart and His Pupils (1939; reprint, New York: Kennedy Galleries and Da Capo Press, 1969), with notes on painting by Matthew H. Jouett from conversations with the artist § Charles Merrill Mount, Gilbert Stuart: A Biography (New York: W. W. Norton, 1964), with lists of sitters and works § Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, and Providence, Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Gilbert Stuart: Portraitist of the Young Republic, 1755-1828, exh. cat., 1967, with essay by Edgar P. Richardson, chronology, catalogue by Mary E. Burnet and others.