STUART, Gilbert, artist, born in Narragansett, Rhode Island, 3 December, 1755; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 27 July, 1828. The name Charles was given to him by his father, an ardent Jacobite, but Stuart dropped it, and used only his first name. He attempted portraiture when a mere boy, and produced several pictures which, if not remarkable as paintings, were at least good likenesses. Two of these early attempts, portraits of Mr. and Mrs. John Bannister, are now in the Redwood library, Newport. He had no regular instruction until he became, in 1770, the pupil of Cosmo Alexander, a Scotchman. When Alexander returned to his native land, about two years later, he took his young pupil with him. Unfortunately for Stuart, his master died soon after arriving in Edinburgh, and left his protege in charge of Sir George Chambers. The latter did not long outlive Alexander, and Stuart was thus thrown on his own resources. It is said that he worked his passage home on a "collier bound to Nova Scotia," and while on board he seems to have experienced much rough usage; but he never spoke of this matter, and any reference to it gave him evident pain. On arriving in this country, after an absence of about two years, he began to practise as a portrait-painter in Newport. He had a strong desire to revisit Europe, in order to gain a more complete knowledge of his art, and especially to study under his countryman, Benjamin West. As in the event of war. which then appeared inevitable, it would be impossible for him to visit England for some time, he embarked for London in the spring of 1775. There he had much difficulty in finding employment for his pencil, and suffered from poverty at times. He had been several years in London before he summoned courage to go to West, who in 1778 received him kindly and gave him much assistance and instruction. Stuart lived with him for several years, during which time, his earnings being as yet scanty, his knowledge of music was of great service to him. He had always been greatly interested in the art, and had learned to play upon several instruments. He now accepted a position as organist in a church, with a salary of £30 a year. After several years, at the advice of West, he opened a studio. The first portrait that brought the young artist, into notice was a full-length of W. Grant, of Congalton, which he had painted while still a pupil of West. When it was exhibited at Somerset House, it attracted much attention, and Stuart soon became a fashionable artist in London. He married Charlotte Coates in 1786, and two years later, on an invitation from the Duke of Rutland, went to Dublin, where many noblemen and people of wealth and fashion sat to him. After a stay in Dublin of about four years he returned to the United States in 1792. He spent some time at first in New York, where he painted numerous portraits, among them those of Sir John Temple, John Jay, and General Matthew Clarkson. He went, in 1794, to Philadelphia, with a letter to General Washington from , John Jay. His long-cherished wish, to paint the portrait of Washington, was thus to be fulfilled. Washington sat to him the following year, but Stuart was not satisfied with his first attempt, and it is believed by some that he subsequently destroyed the picture. Rembrandt Peale, however, says that Stuart made five copies of the painting. He next executed a full-length for the Marquis of Lansdowne. This was followed by the head known as the "Athenaeum portrait." The latter was long accepted as the best likeness of Washington, but it is said that this, as well as the Lansdowne portrait, is inferior as a portrait to Stuart's first picture of Washington. Of this third portrait only the head was finished, but it formed the basis of all of Stuart's subsequent portraits of Washington. A large number of replicas of it were executed by Stuart and other artists, and it has been frequently engraved, notably by Asher B. Durand in 1834. Stuart offered it to the state of Massachusetts for $1,000; but the offer was not accepted. After his death, his widow sold it, together with the companion portrait of Mrs. Washington, for $1,500. It belongs to the Boston athenaeum. While in Philadelphia Stuart painted a large number of portraits, and when the city of Washington was founded, and congress removed to that place, he went there in 1803. During his stay he was intimately associated with the most eminent men of the country, and his pencil was kept. as busy as ever. In 1805 he removed to Boston, where he afterward resided. There were no signs of failing health until 1825-'6, when his left arm showed symptoms of paralysis. Yet he still tried to paint, and succeeded in finishing several heads. But soon the gout, which had caused him severe suffering at times, settled on his chest and stomach. This was in 1828, and Stuart, after bearing his pains with great fortitude for three months, died during July of that year. Washington Allston was asked to pronounce a eulogy on Stuart, but his feeble health forced him to decline. He wrote an obituary, however, which was printed in the Boston" Daily Advertiser." Personally Stuart was a great favorite in society, of which he was very fond. He had a true artist's nature, and was frequently brought into trouble by his reckless expenditures; at his death his family was left quite destitute. His remarkable conversational powers were usually employed to good effect while he was occupied with his sitters. At such times it was his custom to draw on his store of narratives and anecdotes, and, as Allston says, "by banishing all restraint, to call forth, if possible, some involuntary traits of the natural character .... it was this which enabled him to animate his canvas, not with the appearance of a mere general life, but with that peculiar, distinctive life, which separates the humblest individual from his kind ... Were other evidence wanting, this talent alone were sufficient to establish his claims as a man of genius." Stuart produced during his career an exceedingly large number of portraits--how many cannot with certainty be ascertained. The catalogue of the exhibition of his portraits, held in 1880 in Boston, gives a list of 754 numbers, and even this is not quite complete. Some of the more important, besides those already mentioned, are the Duke of Northumberland and his children; John Kemble; James Greenleaf and Robert Morris (1795) ; John Trumbull ; Theodore Sedgwick : John S. Copley; General Henry Knox; General Henry Lee; Thomas Jefferson ; Mr. and Mrs. James Madison ; Mr. and Mrs. John Quincy Adams (1818); Madame Jerome Bonaparte; Josiah Quincy (1806 and 1824); John Adams (1825) ; Fisher Ames; Joseph Story ; and John Jacob Astor. His last portrait was that of John Quincy Adams, a full-length, of which only the head was completed when Stuart died. Thomas Sully subsequently finished it, that is, he painted the body and accessories. Most of these portraits are in the possession of private individuals, but several are owned by the Pennsylvania academy of fine arts, the Lenox library, New York, the New York historical society, the Boston art museum, the Redwood library, the Maryland historical society, and Harvard university. He had a remarkable eye for color--" color was one of Stuart's strong points," as his daughter says--and was a master in the rendering of flesh. In painting flesh his practice was to lay the pure colors directly on the canvas, and then drag them together by a large brush. He was especially successful in his heads, the figure and drapery, at least in some of his portraits, being at times quite carelessly executed. Very many of his works have been frequently copied by himself and others, and a large number have been engraved. See "Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart," by George C. Mason (New York, 1879).--His daughter, Jane, born about 1810; died in Newport, Rhode Island, 28 April, 1888, followed for many years the profession of portrait-painting. She contemplated writing a life of her father, and published several papers in " Scribner's Monthly " in 1877. The work was subsequently written, at her request, by George Champlin Mason.