Gilbert Stuart (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)

About this book

The most successful and resourceful portraitist of Americas early national period Gilbert Stuart (17551828) possessed enormous natural talent bringing his witty and irascible manner to bear on each of his works. This handsome book highlights Stuarts achievements by presenting more than ninety portraits of exceptional quality ranging from the early works he produced in Newport Rhode Island to those he executed just before his death in Boston. Carrie Rebora Barratt and Ellen G. Miles show how Stuart developed and maintained a distinctive portrait style tailoring his portrayals to fit his subjects. They trace the development of his art from his hometown of Newport where he proved his talent to his years in London and Dublin where he mastered the techniques of the English late-eighteenth-century Grand Manner to his return to America (no longer the Colonies but now the United States) where he dealt with clients in New York Philadelphia Washington and Boston. The authors provide a short essay about Stuart in each of the sites of his production which introduces the works painted there. There is also a special section devoted to Stuarts famous and popular portraits of Washington the so-called Vaughan Athenaeum and Lansdowne portraits. These works are discussed in terms of patronage technique chronology and interpretation. The most comprehensive book on the artists work to date Gilbert Stuart is essential for anyone who admires American art and history.