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Portrait of a Family
Gilbert Stuartabout 1783-1793
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Indianapolis, United States
Details
- Title: Portrait of a Family
- Creator Lifespan: 1755 - 1828
- Creator Nationality: American
- Creator Gender: Male
- Date Created: about 1783-1793
- Type: oil paintings
- Rights: Gift of Mrs. Herman C. Krannert
- External Link: http://www.imamuseum.org/mercury/load-artwork/24041
- Medium: oil on canvas
- wall label: Gilbert Stuart Portrait of A Family, ca. 1783 - 1793 oil on canvas 50 x 40 in. Gift of Mrs. Herman C. Krannert ÿLearn More Debt resulting from an inability to manage money kept Gilbert Stuart on the move much of his life.ÿ Born in North Kingston, Rhode Island and raised in Newport, Stuart was taught by a local Scottish painter who took him to Scotland, but his mentor_s death forced Stuart back to America.ÿ During the Revolutionary War, he returned to England to study with the American expatriate Benjamin West.ÿ As success came, so did debt which forced Stuart to Dublin, Ireland and then to America, where he eventually became the most highly regarded portraitist of his day. A skillful master of his craft, Stuart painted directly on the canvas, without using any preliminary drawing. By the end of his career, Stuart had painted over a thousand portraits of important political figures.ÿ One of his most famous portraits of George Washington was the _Athenaeum Head_ currently on the dollar bill. In this painting, the woman and children are posed against a drawn drape in the style of British portraiture.ÿ The similarity of the colors used in the sash, chair, curtain and trim on the young boy_s jacket move the viewer_s eye around the canvas to encompass all the figures. The woman is wearing a simple, elegant, robe l_Anglais, a gown favored by portrait painters of the period.ÿ The woman_s hair is lightly powdered and fashionably styled in the coiffure la h‚risson, or _hedgehog,_ in which the hair was cut short in the front, frizzed to the ends and then brushed up away from the face.ÿ Reference Carrie Rebora Barratt, Ellen Gross Miles.ÿ Gilbert Stuart, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.ÿ ISBN-13: 978-1588391247
- measurements: 50 x 40 in. 58 3/4 x 49 in. (framed)
- Artist: Stuart, Gilbert
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