Circle of Gilbert Stuart Exceptional GEORGE WASHINGTON Portrait, c. 1815-1825

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Circle of Gilbert Stuart Exceptional GEORGE WASHINGTON Portrait, c. 1815-1825:
$10999.00

Circleof Gilbert Stuart
PLEASE NOTE: Better Photos Added to listing on June 28
TheHonorable George Washington(1732-1799)1stPresident of the United StatesAthenaeumReplica PortraitCirca 1815-182530” x 25”Oil on CanvasFramedin Replica Federal Period Frame in 22k Gold LeafProfessionally Cleaned and Relined in2006Originally froma Boston EstateThisitem is a beautiful 19th century replica portrait that was purchasedfrom a Boston estate in the early 2000s.The painting is a replica of Gilbert Stuart’s famous Athenaeum Portraitof George Washington. Stuart and hisstudio made something of an industry of these portraits, painting at least 130of them. So, without provenance thatconnects a specific replica to Stuart, it is impossible to sort out which oneswere by his own hand and which ones were done contemporaneously by his students,who in any event, collaborated with Stuart in his atelier. We can state that the quality of thispainting is exceptional, with a well-constructed head, beautiful, luminous skintones and an excellent technique. Becausethe original canvas was weak, it was professionally cleaned and relined, butthe original paint layer was in extraordinary condition. The stretchers are original, well oxidizedand consistent with an early 19th century dating. A proper 22k gold leaf Federal Era frame wasconstructed at great expense. Thisitem will be shipped in a professionally constructed wooden crate, properlywrapped, insulated with foam and shipped insured so that it arrives in perfectcondition for $250. Gilbert Stuartand the Athenaeum PortraitIn 1794, with aletter of introduction from John Jay in hand, Stuart went to Philadelphia torequest sittings with George Washington. Painting his portrait was a shrewdbusiness move, for depictions of Washington were in demand on both sides of theAtlantic. Stuart’s established technique for finding appropriate expressionsand poses for his sitters was to engage them with lively banter. When heencountered Washington, however, he found the president to be a difficultsitter. Stuart’s usual charm and repartee failed to enliven this reserved man.According to Washington’s grandson George Washington Parke Custis, Stuartfinally succeeded in engaging him by discussing horses, a favorite topic of thepresident, who was an accomplished equestrian.Each ofStuart’s portraits of Washington (about one hundred in all) is based on one ofthree life portraits. Washington first sat for Stuart in 1795, but the resultof that early session, a portrait showing Washington facing right, is knownonly through replicas that are identified as the Vaughan type (named for thefirst owner of one of the replicas). That first portrait was so successful thatMartha Washington commissioned Stuart to paint a pair of portraits of her andher husband for their Virginia home, Mount Vernon. Stuart began what wouldbecome his most reproduced image, a depiction of Washington facing left, nowcalled the Athenaeum portrait for the Boston library that acquired it afterStuart’s death. Although he never finished the original itself, he used itthroughout his career to make approximately seventy-five replicas, and theimage––carefully built up with contrasting flesh tones––is one of Stuart’s mostaccomplished portraits. Creating it was not an easy task; when the presidentcame to sit for the portrait, his newly acquired set of false teeth created abulge around the mouth and distorted his jawline.In 1796, thepresident sat a third time. This full-length canvas envisions Washington in therole of civilian leader, in a formal black velvet suit rather than his militaryuniform. The portrait is known as the Lansdowne, because it was commissioned asa gift for the Marquis of Lansdowne. The composition, which reflects Stuart’sknowledge of European state portraiture, includes objects symbolic ofWashington’s illustrious military and civil leadership, while his oratoricalpose, with hand extended, refers, according to contemporaries, to his recentspeech to Congress. The image was celebrated in America and England upon itscompletion, and Stuart was commissioned to paint several replicas. Gilbert Stuart wascommissioned to paint these portraits after the success of his first portraitof Washington in 1795. Martha Washington convinced the President to sit again.According to Rembrandt Peale, she \"wished a Portrait for herself; hetherefore consented on the express condition that when finished it should behers.\" However Stuart preferred this portrait of Washington to his earlierone, and purposefully left the paintings unfinished, using that of Washingtonas a model for numerous copies. During Stuart\'s lifetime, the portraits werereferred to as the \"Mount Vernon Portraits.\" They are now called the\"Athenaeum portraits\" because they were owned by the Boston Athenaeumfor more than 150 years.Stuart\'simage of Washington has been considered very dramatic and forceful since thetime it was painted. The artist depicted Washington with a distinct wide-jawedlook, commenting \"When I painted him, he had just had a set of false teethinserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about themouth and lower part of the face.\" John Neal, an early-nineteenth-centurywriter and art critic, wrote: \"Stuart says, and there is no fact morecertain, that he [Washington] was a man of terrible passions; the sockets ofhis eyes; the breadth of his nose and nostrils; the deep broad expression ofstrength and solemnity upon his forehead, were all a proof of this. Though abetter likeness of him were shown to us, we should reject it; for, the onlyidea that we now have of George Washington, is associated with Stuart\'sWashington.\" Stuart, Gilbert (3 Dec. 1755-9 July 1828), artist, was born in North Kingstown, RhodeIsland, the son of Gilbert Stuart, a millwright, and Elizabeth Anthony. (Stuart,as an adult, occasionally used the middle name Charles, but he was not sobaptized.) When Gilbert was six, his family moved to Newport, Rhode Island. Hischildhood friend, BenjaminWaterhouse, later a prominent physician, reported that Stuart earlydisplayed an interest in the fine arts and had begun to draw and paint by thetime he was twelve. In 1769, he met a visiting Scottish portrait painter, CosmoAlexander, who gave him lessons and employed him as an assistant. Alexander andStuart subsequently traveled to Philadelphia, Delaware, and Virginia beforesetting sail for Edinburgh in 1771, but Alexander died unexpectedly thefollowing year. Stuart made his way back to America by working as a crewman ona collier bound for Nova Scotia, from whence he returned to Newport, where hepainted portraits of several of the city\'s well-to-do residents. A few of theseearly works survive; the double portrait of the brothers Francis and SaundersMalbone (c. 1774-1775, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is his most ambitiouscolonial work.Therising discord in the colonies that led to the American Revolution distractedits citizens from patronizing the arts, and so in September 1775, Stuartdeparted for London. There he supplemented his meager portrait income withemployment as a church organist, but by Easter 1777, reduced to near-beggary,he wrote an abject letter to Benjamin West,a fellow American and history painter to King George III, asking for help. Westhired Stuart as a copyist; subsequently, West took him on as a pupil andinvited him into his household. For the next four years Stuart studied withWest. His skills quickly flourished, but he resisted being influenced by histeacher\'s grand and formal style, preferring instead the fashionableportraiture as practiced by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. AsWest\'s pupil, he assisted his master in painting large canvases of historicaland religious subjects and evidently was primarily responsible for executingWest\'s designs for the ceiling of Somerset House, then the home of the Royal Academy;but he never painted such subjects after leaving West\'s studio. His bestpicture from this early period of his study with West is a self-portraitpainted in 1778 (Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, R.I.), painted indeliberate imitation of Rubens.Stuartestablished himself as a portraitist in London and exhibited his work at theRoyal Academy. In 1782 he painted his first (and arguably best) full-lengthportrait, of a young Scotsman named William Grant. Stuart later told the storythat Grant, arriving for his first sitting, remarked that the weather was moresuitable for skating than for posing. The artist agreed, and soon the two youngmen were skating on the Serpentine in Hyde Park, which gave Stuart the idea ofpainting Grant in the act of skating. The result, known today as The Skater(National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), attracted much favorable noticewhen it was exhibited at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1782 and led toStuart\'s receiving numerous commissions; years later he said he had\"suddenly been lifted into fame by a single picture.\"Stuartnever lacked for patrons thereafter. Among his sitters were his fellow artists, JohnSingleton Copley (c. 1784, National Portrait Gallery, London), SirJoshua Reynolds (1784, National Gallery of Art, Washington), and Benjamin West(National Portrait Gallery, London) and the actors (and brother and sister)John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons (c. 1785, both National Portrait Gallery,London). A full-length portrait of ten-year-old Henrietta Elizabeth Frederica Vane(1783, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts) is a lovelydepiction of a very attractive little girl who gazes at the viewer whilereaching for a vine clinging to a nearby tree. He painted two life portraits ofthe Mohawk chief Joseph Brant(c. 1786, Syon House, London, and the New York State Historical Association,Cooperstown), both of which capture Brant\'s intelligence and picturesqueappearance.Stuartmoved in 1784 into a larger and more expensive house near Burlington House in afashionable section of London. He was by now one of Britain\'s leadingportraitists, regarded by his contemporaries as the best of the risinggeneration poised to follow Gainsborough and Reynolds. He knew most of thegreat and near-great figures of his day and entertained lavishly. In 1786, hemarried Charlotte Coates, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a surgeon in theRoyal Navy; they eventually had twelve children.In1787, at the height of his popularity, Stuart abruptly left England forIreland. His daughter Jane said years later that he had been invited there bythe duke of Rutland, then lord-lieutenant; another, more likely reason was toescape his creditors. (His friend Sir Thomas Lawrence commented that heattributed Stuart\'s departure to \"his having become tired of the inside ofsome of our [debtor\'s] prisons.\") Jane Stuart always denied that herfather lived extravagantly, but he was notorious throughout his life for beingunable to manage his finances. Stuart, far more talented than the other artistsworking in the Irish capital, soon claimed the lion\'s share of the availablepatronage, painting many of the Anglo-Irish elite, including the duke ofLeinster (c. 1787, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, N.J.), the earl ofFitzgibbon (1789, Cleveland Museum of Art), the Right Honorable John Foster(1791, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo.), and the Reverend WilliamPreston (c. 1788, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond). Technically,Stuart\'s Irish portraits are of the same high quality as his London work, and,although he did not always execute a first-rate portrait, his level of skillremained at a consistently high level for the rest of his life. While still inIreland he painted a rare (for him) double portrait of two girls, Miss Dick andher cousin Miss Forster (1787-1792, private collection), a remarkable picturein which Miss Dick interacts both with her cousin (through the act of painting)and the viewer (with her gaze).Ashe had in England, Stuart fell deeply into debt in Ireland, and his solutionwas the same: he fled the country. In the spring of 1793, and after an absenceof eighteen years, he returned to America. On 6 May, he and his family arrivedin New York City, where he quickly was recognized as the best painter Americahad seen since Copley\'s departure in 1774. The city\'s leading citizens, manyprominent in national affairs as well, began giving him work straightaway. Thepair of portraits of the Spanish diplomat Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot and hisAmerican-born wife Matilda (1794, both Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)depict a stylish, sophisticated couple, aspects well captured by Stuart. Incontrast, his portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Yates (1793-1794, both NationalGallery of Art, Washington) are restrained and straightforward likenesses of aplain and unassuming husband and wife. Mrs. Yates\'s portrait in particular haslong been recognized as one of Stuart\'s best. Stuart\'s most prestigious NewYork patron was John Jay,chief justice of the United States, whom Stuart had known and painted inLondon. The earlier portrait (1782-1783, U.S. Department of State, Washington)shows Jay in a dark suit, seated at a table as if he had just paused whilewriting; the later portrait (1794, collection of Peter Augustus Jay, on loan tothe National Gallery of Art, Washington) depicts him from the same angle but inthe silver-trimmed red and black robe he wore as chief justice. This portraitof Jay ranks high in the canons of both Stuart\'s works and Jay\'s likenesses.Other notable portraits executed by Stuart in New York include those ofChancellor Robert R.Livingston (Clermont State Historic Site, Clermont, N.Y.), Egbert Benson(John Jay State Historic Site, Katonah, N.Y.), General Horatio Gates,and General MatthewClarkson (both Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Stuart was oneof the finest practitioners of the Georgian style, whose characteristicsinclude fluid brushwork and rich colors.Stuartmoved to Philadelphia (then the capital of the United States) in the latterpart of 1794. Whether he intended to settle there is not certain; he wrote tohis uncle Joseph Anthony, a resident of the city, that he meant \"only tosecure a picture of the President, and finish yours,\" but he remained for nineyears. He obtained sittings from GeorgeWashington in late winter or early spring of 1795, and produced aportrait of which he subsequently painted approximately a dozen replicas. Theseare known as Vaughan-type portraits because one of them (erroneously thought tobe the life portrait) was acquired by a London merchant named Samuel Vaughan.What became of the life portrait is not known, although Stuart, professing tobe dissatisfied with the result, claimed to have rubbed it out. TheVaughan-type image is a straightforward likeness of a natural aristocrat, a manborn to lead; in short, Washington the public figure. It is an image perfectlyacceptable both to the president\'s contemporaries and to posterity, but Stuartwas not content merely to record his subject\'s lineaments; he tried to catchthe personality as well and felt he had not succeeded with Washington. Hereceived another opportunity to paint the president from life in 1796, whichresulted in Stuart\'s best-known work and Washington\'s best-known likeness, theso-called Athenaeum portrait (formerly owned by the Boston Athenaeum and nowowned jointly by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National PortraitGallery, Washington). It was immediately popular, and the artist painted manyreplicas of it. The life portrait has a freshness and immediacy not evident inany of the replicas, most of which were quickly and rather carelessly painted;but Stuart seems to have been no more successful in penetrating Washington\'sreserve than in the Vaughan-type portrait. He also painted a full-length of thepresident in 1796 (versions owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,Philadelphia, and a private collection, on loan to the National PortraitGallery, Washington), known as the Lansdowne portrait. Washington is shown inthe act of giving an oration, his right arm outstretched. Although this too hasbeen considered to be from life, the head is suspiciously close in appearanceto that of the Athenaeum portrait. He subsequently painted two further types offull-length portrait of Washington, one showing the president in a dark suitand gazing directly at the viewer (New York Public Library), the other showinghim in uniform and looking away from the viewer (City of Boston, on deposit atthe Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).Alist of Stuart\'s Philadelphia sitters reads like a \"Who\'s Who\" offederal America. In addition to the president, he painted MarthaWashington (1796, jointly owned by the Museum of Fine Arts and theNational Portrait Gallery); a pair of portraits of John and Abigail Adams(both National Gallery of Art), which he began in 1800 and completed fifteenyears later; William White,Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania (c. 1795, Pennsylvania Academy of the FineArts, Philadelphia); WilliamCooper, the founder of Cooperstown, New York (c. 1797, New YorkState Historical Association, Cooperstown); and many others. An important andunusual work from this period is the smaller-than-life-size full-length of thevicomte de Noailles (Louis MarieNoailles), a French army officer (and cousin of the Marquis deLafayette) then residing in Philadelphia (1798, Metropolitan Museumof Art, New York). Noailles is shown standing next to his horse while a cavalrycharge takes place in the background. The format is in fact atypical of Stuart.His usual format was half-length, life-size.Soonafter arriving in Philadelphia Stuart moved to Germantown (then a suburb, now apart of the city). He continued to live and work there after the seat ofgovernment moved to Washington, D.C., in 1800. During this period he paintedthe memorable portrait of the poet SarahWentworth Apthorp Morton (c. 1802, Worcester Art Museum). Heinitially painted her in a conventional pose with her arms across her waist butsubsequently altered his design to show her in the act of adjusting her headcovering; he finally left the portrait unfinished. Even in its unfinished statethe painting is of high quality and is among the most attractive of his works.InDecember 1803 Stuart moved to Washington, where there was an immediate demandfor his services. \"Stuart is all the rage,\" reported a contemporary,adding, \"He is almost worked to death.\" His studio was located at thecorner of Seventh and F Streets, near where the National Portrait Gallery nowstands. ThomasJefferson sat twice in 1805, once for a conventional half-lengthportrait and the second time for a more interesting and unusual likeness (FoggArt Museum, Harvard University) in which he is shown in left profile in themanner of antiquity; Stuart executed it in crayon and watercolor on paper. In1804 he painted James Madisonand DolleyMadison; Madison\'s portrait (Colonial Williamsburg, Va.) reflectsthe scholarly mien of its subject while that of Dolley (White House Collection)captures her vivacity and sense of humor. Among his other sitters during thistime were the architect WilliamThornton and his wife Ann (both 1804, National Gallery of Art) and AlbertGallatin (c. 1804, Metropolitan Museum of Art).Stuartwas swamped with commissions during his residence in Washington, but the citywas still very new and unfinished and naturally lacked the polish andsophistication of older, established towns. He could have continued workingthere indefinitely, but (according to Dolley Madison) even from the beginningof his stay he talked of moving to Boston. In July 1805 he departed, arrivingin Boston before the end of the month, and he remained for the rest of hislife. He lived and worked at first at Champotin\'s Hotel on Summer Street andthen in a series of rented houses generally near the center of town.Asin New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, Stuart had no trouble getting work.He painted most of Boston\'s leading citizens and distinguished visitors. Hislevel of skill remained high, but by and large his compositions became simpleras he concentrated on heads. Bodies are painted simply, sometimes carelessly.Some critics have wrongly seen this change in style as a decline in theartist\'s powers. Among the best of these simple, direct portrayals arelikenesses of President James Monroe(1817, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia), John QuincyAdams (1818, White House Collection), David Sears, Jr. (c. 1815,Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Commodore ThomasMacdonough (c. 1815-1818, National Gallery of Art). He continued topaint larger, more finished portraits; the finest of these include likenessesof General Henry Knox(c. 1805), Bishop John LouisCheverus (1823), and Josiah Quincy(1824) (all Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Nor was it only his patrons whoadmired his work. A number of young artists journeyed to Boston to receiveinstruction or counsel from the master. Thomas Sully,John Neagle,JacobEichholtz, James Frothingham, and MatthewHarris Jouett all profited from his advice and encouragement, and hewas generous in sharing both his time and his thorough knowledge of painting.Despitedeclining health, Stuart\'s powers remained unaffected, and he painted some ofhis finest works during the last years of his life. Particularly noteworthy arethe portraits of the 89-year-old John Adams(1824, private collection; a replica is owned by the National Museum ofAmerican Art, Washington) and the artist WashingtonAllston (1827-1828, Metropolitan Museum of Art). The Adams portraitis a carefully painted depiction of the aged statesman, his intelligenceenlivening his worn and decrepit appearance. It was much admired by Allston,whose own portrait by Stuart is equally brilliant, albeit very different.Handsome and vigorous at forty-eight, he looks away from the viewer with analert and intelligent expression; but only the head was painted, the rest ofthe composition not even begun. \"It is the mere head,\" said Richard HenryDana, Allston\'s brother-in-law, \"but such a head! and so likethe man!\" (Mason, p. 127). Stuart continued to paint until only a fewweeks before his death. He died in Boston and was buried in the Central BuryingGround on Boston Common.Oftenunderrated because he painted only portraits (and so many of those were ofWashington), Gilbert Stuart ranks not only among the very best artists of histime but also among those produced by the United States. He influenced a generationof American portraitists, both those who had been his pupils and those whonever met him but knew his work and emulated his style. His oeuvre is a richvisual record of most of the leading personages of his day in Britain, Ireland,and America. BibliographyStuartevidently wrote few letters, and there is no collection of his papers. His workcan be found in most public collections, including the National Gallery of Artand the National Portrait Gallery, both in Washington, D.C.; the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,Philadelphia; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Ireland,Dublin; the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Gallery, both in London; andelsewhere. In addition to his self-portrait of 1778 (Redwood Library andAthenaeum, Newport, R.I.), Stuart painted another in 1786 on a small scrap ofcanvas (Metropolitan Museum of Art). He was also portrayed by Rembrandt Pealeand Charles Willson Peale in 1805 (New-York Historical Society) and by JohnNeagle in 1825 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Benjamin West drew Stuart inpencil while Stuart painted West\'s portrait in 1783 (British Museum, London).Sarah Goodridge painted three nearly identical miniatures around 1825 or earlier(owned by, respectively, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York; and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington), whileAnson Dickinson executed a miniature of Stuart in 1823 (New-York HistoricalSociety). The life mask taken by John Henri Isaac Browere in November 1825(Redwood Library and Athenaeum) is the best of the late likenesses of theartist. Astandard biography is William T. Whitley, Gilbert Stuart (1932). Theearliest biography, written with the cooperation of the artist\'s daughter Jane,is George C. Mason, The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart (1879). RichardMcLanathan, Gilbert Stuart (1986), is a popular biography written forthe general reader and has many useful illustrations. Other popular biographiesinclude James Thomas Flexner, Gilbert Stuart: A Great Life in Brief(1955), and Charles Merrill Mount, Gilbert Stuart (1964). Lawrence Park,Gilbert Stuart (1926), is a catalogue raisonné that, although outdated,includes reproductions of most of Stuart\'s works, a good biographical sketch byJohn Hill Morgan, a short article on Stuart\'s technique by Theodore Bolton, andan assessment of his career by the noted critic Royal Cortissoz. The onlyexhibition of Stuart\'s work in recent years was held jointly at the NationalGallery of Art in Washington and the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School ofDesign, Providence, in 1967. The catalog includes a good essay by E.P.Richardson.