Gilbert Stuart

Stuart was born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and received his first training in Newport with the Scottish painter Cosmo Alexander. He accompanied Alexander to Scotland, but after his teacher’s death in 1772 he returned to America. In 1775 Stuart moved to London, where soon afterward he entered the studio of his compatriot Benjamin West. Back in America in the early 1790s, Stuart became the leading portraitist of his day in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.