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Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), George Washington (Vaughan Portrait), 1795. Oil on canvas, 28 ¾” x 23 13/16” (73 x 60.5 cm). © National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. (NGA-P0675) |
I’m celebrating the 4th
of July by showing you one of the many portraits Gilbert
Stuart did of our first president, George
Washington. I hate to be an overly sappy art historian, but one of my
secret dreams is to be around at the time our first president was alive. It
must have been such an exhilarating period, everything about our democracy
brand new (compared to now with a do-nothing Congress). I know there were
plenty of problems to iron out, but I’ve always admired George Washington (he
stopped at a tavern at the end of my street in 1776!). The right man for the
right job I say. To be totally honest, I’m not a big fan of American artists
who emigrated to Britain before the Revolution in order to perfect their style
and make more money, but I find Stuart a lot less objectionable than Benjamin West, John
Trumbull, and John Singleton Copley who
ended their days in Britain. Go US artists!
Gilbert Stuart was exclusively a portrait painter. He
returned to the US in 1793, settling in New York, having been in Britain since
1775, under the tutelage of Benjamin West. Apparently, Stuart accrued so many
debts in both Britain and, subsequently, Ireland that he decided to return to
the US. What is called a “provincial style” by the National Gallery in Washington was honed by
Stuart’s contacts with British portraitists, such as Joshua Reynolds and particularly George Romney, whose combination of softened Classicism and the burgeoning Romantic style affected Stuart’s style
permanently.
Immediately after returning home he began producing portraits,
displaying what he had learned in Europe, with the American prescient for
extreme realism. Compared, however to his portraits
before the Revolution that emphasized worldly gain and extravagance, his
portraits after the Revolution revealed a simplicity of form, costume, and
background that combined Romanticism and Neoclassicism.
The portraits that Stuart produced after his return attracted a great amount of
attention.
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Gilbert Stuart, Francis Malbone and His Brother Saunders, c. 1773. Oil on canvas, 36” x 44” (91.44 x 111.76 cm). © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (MFAB-459) |
Eager to establish himself with the major players of the
Revolution and officials of the new government, he moved to Philadelphia in
1795. Philadelphia was the capitol of the US from 1790 to 1800, when Washington
DC was finished. Stuart’s stoic, dignified, monumental realistic style appealed
to the members of the new democracy’s government, and it soon attracted the
attention of the our first president. His first sitting with the president was
in 1795, but the result dissatisfied him and he did another sitting in 1796.
The Vaughan style was oriented to the left. Out of the over 1100 portraits
produced by Stuart, 104 of them are of our first president.
I may be a Northern
Renaissance specialist when it comes to art history, but I love Stuart’s
portraits of our first president because he actually got the president to sit
for him. Apparently it wasn’t a comfortable session, because Stuart talked a
lot. President Washington was a very reserved person and found Stuart’s
prattling annoying. Maybe that’s why the president’s cheeks are so flushed?
(Like, “Shut up, won’t you!?”)
Correlations to Davis
programs: Explorations in Art Grade 3: 1.1, 1.2; Explorations in Art Grade
4: 1.2, 2.7; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 1.1, 1.2; A Community Connection:
3.4, 6.2; Discovering Art History 11.5; Experience Painting: Chapter 6;
Exploring Painting: Chapters 7, 10; The Visual Experience: 9.3
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