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THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1938 Americans Owe Debt of Gratitude to Debts of Improvident Painter Harassed by His Creditors Abroad, Gilbert Stuart Returned to His Native Land to Make Money by Painting President George Washington's Portrait and Produced the Familiar Picture Which Most of Us Regard as the Best Likeness of the "Father of His Country." • Western Newspaper Union. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON ^MONG the many face tious remarks attrib uted to Mark Twain is this one: “If George Wash ington should rise from the dead and should not resem ble the Stuart portrait, he would be denounced as an Impostor! ” Whether Clemens or some other humorist de serves credit for that witti cism is not important. The interesting thing is how much “truth spoken in jest” it 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 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 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 he was an artist and did he play a part in the struggle for liberty in the Days of ’76? 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 A Copy of the “Vaughan Por trait” of Washington. surprise you to learn that the an swer to all of these questions is “No!” But that happens to be the correct answer. Gilbert Stuart was bom near Newport, R. I., on December 3, 1755. His father was a snuff- grinder, a Scotsman who spelled it “Stewart” and gave his son the middle name of Charles in honor of “Bonnie Prince Char lie,” the pretender to the throne of Scotland. Young Gilbert be gan his artistic career by draw ing pictures on the walls of barns and houses. His talent attracted the notice of Cosmo Alexander, a Scotch painter, who visited New port. When Alexander returned to Scotland he took the boy with him and enrolled him in the 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 paint ing his life work. At the outbreak of the 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 en list in a cause for which his 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 be came one of the best known 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 prosper ity he married Charlotte Coates, daughter of a Berkshire physi cian, and decided to settle down to a quiet life. His improvident habits persisted, however, and after two years of married life be found himself deeply in debt. 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 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 ar rangements to have the 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 him self at the disposal of Stuart when his public duties would 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 Presi dent was not at all conversational. Stuart was not satisfied with the portrait which he painted at that time, although art critics and historians believe that it was probably a more faithful likeness of Washington than the more fa mous one which he painted lat er. Soon afterwards Stuart de- inroyed 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 by that name. At a second sitting Stuart exe cuted a full-length portrait, now known as the “Lansdowne 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 “Lans downe” portraits were made in Philadelphia. For the third, painted in 1796, Washington agreed to come to the barn stu dio which Stuart had taken in Germantown, a suburb. He was accompanied by Martha Wash ington and other members of his family. ' He Paints George and Martha. After Stuart had painted both the President and Martha 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 con sent to retain the originals and make copies for the Washing tons. They were satisfied with this arrangement because they liked the portrait of the President better than the two previous stud ies. Perhaps they might not have been so pleased if they had real ized the purpose in Stuart’s mind. For he immediately began mak ing many copies of this portrait of Washington, which he 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 complet ing the picture. These “unfinished portraits” of George and Martha Washington remained in the Stuart family un til after the artist’s death. They were then offered to the state of Massachusetts for $1,000, a price which that commonwealth 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 breed ing, strength, will power, a sense of humor and a rare gift of under standing other men. Above ev erything else it is human.” Although Stuart is remem bered chifly because of his por traits of Washington, he might well be remembered as the 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 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 im provident habits prevented his enjoying for long the money he made. The end of his life found him in poverty. He died in 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 know£ the precise spot where rests tKe dust of “th« greatest portrait painter of hi> time.” Perhaps one reason why the “Athenaeum portraits” of George and Martha Washington are “unfinished” is because Stu art concentrated his attention on faces and never cared to spend much time on backgrounds for his paintings. “I copy the works of God,” he once declared,’“and leave clothes to tailors and man- tua makers.” Dr. S. Spooner, the gossipy author of “Curiosities of Art,” a book published about the middle of the last century, says that Stuart “used to express his contempt for fine finishing of the extremities or rich and elegant accessories, which he used to say was ‘work for girls.’ ” Perhaps he meant, more spe cifically, h 5 s daughter, Jane, who helped him make copies of his original paintings and who prob ably put the finishing touches on the “Lansdowne portrait” in which, according to one authori ty, “the arm and hand were painted from a wax model of Stuart’s own hand and his board ing-house keeper, a man named Smith, posed for the body and legs.” Further evidence of Stuart’s in ability to do more than the face of a portrait is the remark of one of his fellow-students in Lon don that “as to the figure he could not get below the fifth but ton of the coat.” * « » Among the many painters who made portraits of Washington were the Peales—Charles Will- son Peale, his brother, James, and his two sons, Rembrandt and Raphael Peale. One day while Washington was sitting for all four of them, Stuart appeared on the scene but left immediate ly. As he came out of the studio he met Martha Washington and remarked to her that her hus band was “being peeled all around.” This pun has been at tributed to Washington. But it is more likely that Stuart was the man, for he deliberately cul tivated a reputation as a wit and it sounds more like him than it does George Washington. • • • Washington’s eyes were gray but, in making the “Vaughan portrait,” Stuart painted them blue because, as he said, he could not get a gray color that would be permanent and he felt justi- AROUND th. HOUSE Items of Interest to the Housewife Use for Old Shears.—Old shears are useful in salad making to shred the leaves of lettuce or oth er greens. • • • Before Baking Potatoes.—Let them soak in cold, salted water for 15 minutes. They will bake in half the time. • • • For Home Dressmaking.—Make a small pincushion and sew it to a “bracelet” of elastic. 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In this article, among other things, he said: “The only common trait which can be discovered among truly great men has to do with the capacity they have for sustained work in the time of an emergency. “Someone has said that the chief difference between a big man and a little man is that the little man lays dcwn and quits when he discovers that he is tired and sleepy, while that is the very time that the big man presses on harder than ever.” — Hoard’s Dairyman. Reduced Clothing Costs Because advertising created a demand, women can buy ready- to-wear garments at about the cost they paid for the materials only a third of a century ago. Advertising, in addition to de creasing clothing costs, created jobs for many thousands of workers. "Ah showed yo’ mammy with JEWEL too. • For generations, fine cooks throughout the South have preferred Jewel Shortening. 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When it was suggest ed to him that he had made the eyes too blue, he answered, “They will be just right in a hundred years.” After Stuart had painted Wash ington the first time he told his friend, Isaac Weld, who wrote “Travels in America,” that there were features in the President’s face totally different from those he had observed in any other man. “The sockets for the eyes, for instance, were larger than what I ever met with before, and the upper part of the nose broad er," he said. “Ail his features were indicative of the strongest and most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the for ests it is my opinion that he would have been the fiercest man among the savage tribes.” Stuart’s opinion of Washing ton’s “strong and most ungovern able passions,” thus expressed, had an interesting aftermath. Here is the story as told by his daughter, Jane: “While talking one day with General Lee, my father hap pened to remark that Washing ton had a tremendous temper, but held it under wonderful con trol. General Lee breakfasted with the President and Mrs. Washington a few days after wards. “ T saw your portrait the other day,” said the general, “but Stu art says you have a tremendous temper.’ “ ‘Upon my word,’ said Mrs. Washington, coloring, ‘Mr. Stu art takes a great deal upon him self to make such a remark.’ “ ‘But stay, my dear lady,’ said General Lee, ‘he added that the President had it under won derful control.’ “With something like a smile. General Washington remarked. 'H« is right.’ ”