Gilbert Stuart - One of the American Portrait Painters

There are lots of famous portrait painters across the globe. We may be familiar with Leonardo Da Vinci with his masterpiece Mona Lisa. Actually, this portrait is very popular and many people appreciate its beauty and elegance through years. One of the famous American portrait painters is Gilbert Charles Stuart who is known to be one of the best portraitists. He was the one who worked for the portrait of George Washington but unluckily he didn't able to finish it because of his death. As of now, the image appeared on the one-dollar bill.

As one of the best portrait painters, Gilbert Stuart had painted over one-thousand portrait of different people which includes the six presidents of the United States of America. If you are living somewhere in USA and UK, you can still find his works in Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Like some of the portrait painters, Stuart was born with a rich and prominent family. Stuart began to show talent in painting at Newport, Rhode Island and he promised to himself to be one of the known portrait painters in the world. He became successful with the help of his trainer Cosmo Alexander and he painted the portrait of Dr. Hunter's Spaniels which is presently found in the Hunter House Mansion in Newport
We can say the portrait painters are also experiencing frustrations. Thus, Stuart is not an exemption. After the death of Alexander, he found himself not earning in his profession that forced him go back in Newport on 1773.

The onset of the American Revolution and its social disruptions had jeopardized the ambition of Stuart. He kept on striving and he departed for England in 1775 where he studied for six years. Stuart met his success last 1782 for painting the portrait of William Grant which is known as "The Skater". He went to Dublin, Ireland and transferred to Germantown, Pennsylvania where he opened an art studio. Stuart painted George Washington in a series of iconic portraits, each of them leads to the demand for copies that kept Stuart busy and highly paid for years. "Lansdowne is another Washington's portrait (work of Stuart) that is still hanging in the East Room of the White House. This portrait was luckily saved by the intervention of First Lady Dolley Madison Paul Jennings during the attack of the British troops. All in all, Stuart had painted twelve versions of the portraits and the US states grabbed their own copies that are currently hanging in their state capitol.

Like other people, portrait painters are mortals that have to leave the world. Gilbert Stuart suffered a stroke that caused him to be paralyzed. With this traumatic situation, he still continued to paint for two years until he died at the age of seventy-two. No one knows where he is buried because his family didn't able to move his body in Newport. But then, his existence is still recognized since his several portraits are still seen in some of the art museums.