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Rococo) will be hand painted by our professional artists. Let HandmadePiece help you bring better museum quality art reproductions of Gilbert Stuart to home. Photo preview of the finished art will be offered before delivery, global free shipping.
1755 - 1828 • American • Painter • Federal
"On my return to Philadelphia in May 1796 I saw for the first time, in company with my father and uncle, Stuart's portrait. We all agreed that though beautifully painted and touched in a masterly style, as a likeness it was inferior ... the complexion being too fair and too florid, the forehead too flat, brows too high, eyes too full, nose too broad , about the mouth too much inflated, and the neck too long. Such were the estimates made by artists and others during the lifetime of Washington. This is truth and should be a matter of history." - Rembrandt Peale, 18th century
For 200 years Americans have seen George Washington with receding hairline and a gray wig that fluffs out over his ears; deep-set, muddy brown, heavy-lidded, expressionless eyes; high forehead and large nose; soft mouth and jowly cheeks. This icon, which appears on everything from the dollar bill to advertisements for cherry pie, is called the Atheneum head because it hung in the Boston Atheneum. It was painted by Gilbert Stuart, first in 1796 and at least 70 times subsequently. Stuart, who kept the original of the Atheneum head tacked up in his studio, became so proficient at painting Washingtons that he could turn out one every two hours; they were called his $100 bills because that is what he charged for them. Charles Willson PEALE and his son, Rembrandt Peale, who is quoted above, both painted Washington from life, as did several others, but their opinion of Stuart's painting was shared. Why, then, did Stuart's image rise to the status of national icon? One theory is that, in rebellion against European aristocracy, Americans wanted their heroes humble and plain. But perhaps it was simply that Stuart's brilliance as a painter and fame as a portraitist served to elevate this particular work. His style was to brush on paint with fast, easy, and free gestures that captured spirit with spontaneity. He studied in England under WEST and was influenced by the style of REYNOLDS and ROMNEY. But Stuart was irascible, volatile, a man of excess in habits as well as moods. He drank heavily and was always in debt. Indebtedness caused him to move from London, where he was successful, to Ireland, where he both prospered and again fell into debt serious enough to be sent to prison. He fled to America in 179 3, declaring that he was returning home to make his fortune by painting George Washington.