Gilbert stuart timeline

He was quite prolific, executing more than 1, portraits, despite bouts of depression that sent him to his bed for weeks at a time.

What is gilbert stuart famous for

Like other artists of his caliber, he is remembered for his masterpieces, despite a pattern of failing to finish or summarily finishing works that bored him. He commanded high prices, but constantly teetered on the verge of bankruptcy. Stuart thinks it the prerogative of genius to disdain the performance of his engagements. Stuart usually follows Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley in the canonical story of American art and, as a student of the former and admirer of the latter, his attachments to these elder painters are undeniable.

His career nearly parallels that of his almost exact contemporary John Trumbull The principle difference between the two is that, while Trumbull alternated between anger at his patrons and guilt for not having pleased them, Stuart remained unfailingly sanctimonious. He knew well the conventions of portraiture, easily rendered the attributes of gentility and affluence, and succeeded time and again in executing portraits that fulfilled in pictorial terms the wishes and desires of his sitters.

More than once, Stuart escorted to his studio door sitters who thought otherwise. In portraits executed there, Stuart revealed not merely precocious talent but adept technique controlled by his rather quirky and appealing take on contemporary British portraiture. He mastered the techniques of the English grand manner during his years in London —87 and Dublin — For an American painter, study in England was a prerequisite for attaining greatness, but Stuart traveled there more due to haphazard circumstances than deliberate action, a pattern that would be repeated again and again.

It took him five years to achieve acclaim for his work in London, but after the exhibition of masterful full-length portraits like Captain John Gell Success abroad spurred Stuart toward greater ambition: to paint a portrait of George Washington. He left Dublin in early and headed for New York, where he garnered commissions from the rich and famous, such as General Horatio Gates