Existing comment:
Gilbert Stuart
Reverend William Preston, ca 1788
Arguably Benjamin West's most promising student, Gilbert Stuart emerged from his five-year training in London determined to succeed in the realm or portraiture. Best known for his depictions of George Washington, Stuart became America's leading portraitist of the federal period, setting a new standard for the art form. This painting of a British bishop dates from Stuart's successful residency in Dublin, Ireland. It reveals the artist's celebrated fluid brushwork, radiant palette, and talent for capturing a sitter's personality. Paying a compliment to his former pupil, West once told a fellow artist it would be "no use to steal Stuart's colors: if you want to paint as he does you must steal his eyes." |