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Show Americans Owe Debt of Gratitude to Debts of Improvident Painter Harassed by His Creditors Abroad, Gilbert Stuart Returned to His Nativo Land to Make Money by Painting President George Washington's Portrait and Produced tho Familiar Picture Which Most of Us Regard as the Best Likeness of the "Father of His Country." C Western Newspaper Union By ELMO SCOTT WATSON AMONG the many face-ZA face-ZA tious remarks nttrib-L nttrib-L uted to Mark Twain is this one: "If Goorrje Washington Wash-ington should rise from the dead and should not resemble resem-ble the Stuart portrait, he would be denounced ns nn impostor!" Whether Clemens or some other humorist deserves de-serves credit for that witticism witti-cism is not important. The interesting thing is how much "truth spoken in jest" it contains. con-tains. For the fact is that millions of Americans owe to one man, more than to any other, their idea of "what George Washington looked like" and an additional interesting inter-esting fact is that it's very doubtful if he "looked like that" at all! That one man was Gilbert Charles Stuart and he gave to Americans their idea of Washington's appearance in a portrait which, incidentally, he never finished! Who was this painter who thus "composed an unfinished symphony sym-phony in portraiture" of the fa mous man whose birthday we will soon be celebrating? Was he. like John Trumbull, as great a patriot as hewas an artist and did he play a part in the struggle for liberty in the Days of 'To? Was he an ardent admirer of Washington and did he paint his pictures, of the great Virginian as a patriotic gift to posterity? Perhaps it will , ..l.U..l.Ul .1111 II ;." ' . " L V". -; - . fr.v ; - v. " V, ' ' I t , 5 ' Uij.iiai miiiiiiim iwin-irf-i- A Copy the "Vaughan Portrait" Por-trait" of Washington. surprise you to learn that the answer an-swer to all of these questions is "No!" But that happens to be the correct answer. Gilbert Stuart was born near Newport, R. I., on December 3, 1755. His father was a snuff-grinder, snuff-grinder, a Scotsman who spelled it "Stewart" and gave his son the middle name of Charles in honor of "Bonnie Prince Charlie," Char-lie," the pretender to the throne of Scotland. Young Gilbert began be-gan his artistic career by drawing draw-ing pictures on the walls of barns and houses. His talent attracted the notice of Cosmo Alexander, a Scotch painter, who visited Newport. New-port. When Alexander returned to Scotland he took the boy with him and enrolled him in the University Univer-sity of Glasgow under Sir George Chambers. A Prodigal's Return. Both of these patrons died within a short time and young Stuart returned to America in rags but resolved to make painting paint-ing his life work. At the outbreak of the Revolution Revolu-tion the elder Stuart, who was a Tory, removed to Nova Scotia. Young Stuart, who had no desire to give up his painting nor to enlist en-list in a cause for which his family fami-ly had any sympathy, decided to go to England. In the spring of 1775 he reached London almost penniless but managed to get an introduction to the celebrated Benjamin West and during the next four years studied under him. Recognition of his talent was quickly forthcoming and within the next few years he became be-came one of the best known portrait por-trait painters in Europe. Despite the fact that money poured in upon him, Stuart, who was a lover of good living and a free spender, kept little of it. After several years of prosperity prosper-ity he married Charlotte Coates, daughter of a Berkshire physician, physi-cian, and decided to settle down to a quiet life. His improvident habits persisted, however, and after two years of married life he found himself deeply in debt. , v- -,. . :--: - . - r - :: ..: . , : w , A Copy of Stuart's "Athenaeum Portrait" of George Washington. At last he and his wife went to Ireland to escape his creditors but they followed him there. Meanwhile the Revolution had ended and the fame of George Washington, had spread around the world. Stuart saw in this situation an opportunity to make some money for he believed that portraits of the great Washington Washing-ton by the great painter. Stuart, would command a high price. He Meets the President. When he landed in New York in 1792, he began making arrangements ar-rangements to have the President Presi-dent sit for him. but he did not succeed until two years later. While congress was in session in Philadelphia Stuart went there with a letter of introduction to Washington from John Jay. He met the President at a public reception and Washington said he would be pleased to put himself him-self at the disposal of Stuart vhen his public duties would permit. per-mit. A series of sittings soon was arranged. The first was not a success. Stuart, who was a great wit and was accustomed to joking with his subjects soon found himself nervous in the presence of the great Washington. The President Presi-dent was not at all conversational. Stuart was not satisfied with the portrait which he painted at that time, although art critics arid historians believe that it was probably a more faithful likeness of Washington than the more famous fa-mous one which he painted later. lat-er. Soon afterwards Stuart destroyed de-stroyed this portrait but not until he had made copies of it. These have become known as the GILBERT STUART "Vaughan series," since he sold the first to a wealthy Philadel-phian Philadel-phian by that name. At a second sitting Stuart executed exe-cuted a full-length portrait, now known as the "Lansdowne portrait," por-trait," which was purchased by William Bingham and presented to Lord Lansdowne of England, where it is still owned. The portrait that resulted from the third sitting, however, is the most famous of the three which Stuart did from life. The "Vaughan" and the 'Lansdowne" 'Lans-downe" portraits were made in Philadelphia. For the third, painted in 1796, Washington agreed to come to the barn studio stu-dio which Stuart had taken in Germantown, a suburb. He was accompanied by Martha Washington Wash-ington and other members of his family. He Paints George and .Martha. After Stuart had painted both the President and Martha Washington, Wash-ington, they wished to buy the portraits. But the painter was so pleased with his work that he was reluctant to part with the pictures. He delayed finishing them until he finally gained consent con-sent to retain the originals and make copies for the Washing-tons. Washing-tons. They were satisfied with this arrangement because they liked the portrait of the President better than the two previous studies. stud-ies. Perhaps they might not have been so pleased if they had realised real-ised the purpose in Stuart's mind. For he immediately began making mak-ing many copies of this portrait of Washington, which he regarded regard-ed as "pot-boilers," and selling them for $100 each. In fact, he was accustomed to refer to them as his "nest egg" and his "$100 pieces." His daughter, Jane, aided him in making many of these copies, Stuart painting the head and his daughter completing complet-ing the picture. These "unfinished portraits" of George and Martha Washington remained in the Stuart family until un-til after the artist's death. They were then offered to the state of Massachusetts for $1,000, a price which that commonwealth declined de-clined to pay. In 1831 they were purchased for $1,500 by a group of gentlemen and presented to the Boston Athenaeum (hence the name "Athenaeum portrait") which lent them to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts where they are now kept. Of this "Athenaeum portrait" one critic says: "It fails as true portraiture because in it the features, the expression, the pose, all are ideal rather than human. In it Stuart wished to idealize a hero. The motive is self-evident. In the 'Vaughan' portrait, Stuart was concerned only with catching the real man on canvas. That is a superb work of art, a noble representation of a noble man. The face reveals depth of mind, gentility of breeding, breed-ing, strength, will power, a sense of humor and a rare gift of understanding under-standing other men. Above everything ev-erything else it is human." Although Stuart is remembered remem-bered chifly because of his portraits por-traits of Washington, he might well be remembered as the painter paint-er of more notables than any other artist. In his 50 busy years he is said to have made more than 1,000 portraits and these included in-cluded most of the leading men and women in the United States, England, Ireland and France. But, despite the fact that he was well paid for his work, his improvident im-provident habits prevented his enjoying for long the money he made. The end of his life found him in poverty. He died in Boston, Bos-ton, his home during his last years, on July 27, 1828 and was buried in the Central Burying Ground on Boston Common. A tablet attached to the railing which surrounds the cemetery tells the passer-by that he is buried in that ground but no stone marks his grave, for no man knows the precise spot where rests the dust of "the greatest portrait painter of his time." |