Stuart we had the most valuable art worker. His portraits, while good records, had also beauty and charm. His color was fresh and brilliant. He gave his subjects poise and personality. His pictures were vital. He had not the faculty for design and composition to the extent of the great Englishmen, Reynolds and Gainsborough; but he had a technic that was not inferior. Fortunate has been the nation that has known its heroic founders through the medium of Stuart’s picturing. Indeed, much of our modern regard for those heroes has been engendered by these dignified yet very human presentments. Of Philadelphia families he was the true historian, and of Boston society he was the splendid chronicler that outshone its own Copley. In England, after studying with West, he ranked high for several years in that, the greatest period of English art. He returned to America in 1792, and after spending two years in New York went to Philadelphia to paint Washington.

Apart from the several celebrated pictures of the first president, his best work was done in the decade in which he resided in that city. It has been the policy of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to acquire as many of these works as possible. More than a score are now in its possession, including portraits of Presidents Monroe and Madison, and the famous Dolly Madison canvas. Stuart painted as many as three sets of the first five presidents, one of which was destroyed by fire in Washington. One set is now privately owned in Boston. What is known as the Lansdowne portrait is in the Philadelphia gallery. In design and general impressiveness, though not in features, it is one of the most satisfactory of all the presidential picturings. The Gibbs-Channing portrait, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is the finest in facial modeling. Stuart made many replicas of the few Washingtons he painted from life—especially was this so of the Athenæum head. Much controversy has arisen as to which of the many Washington portraits is the most accurate. The fact of the absolute dimensions of any feature is of little moment to later generations. What is of greatest moment is the poise, the nobility, the grandeur, the serenity, the faith, the wisdom, the Homeric mold, of the man, and these a grateful people has come to think were intimated more fully by Stuart than by any of the other portrayers.

WASHINGTON TAKING LEAVE OF HIS GENERALS

By Trumbull, in the Yale School of Fine Arts.

JOHN TRUMBULL

Painted by himself.

STUART’S PORTRAITS OF WOMEN

Stuart is quoted as saying “Houdon’s bust is the best, and after that, my portrait.” We can well be content to accept these as the two ideal renderings. It has been claimed that he was not very successful in portraying female beauty. This is a contention that is hard to controvert. He did not prettify his sitters in the way Lawrence did; but he surely made them humanly lovely. Rebecca Smith, Anne Bingham, Frances Cadwalader, Elizabeth Bordley, and Sallie McKean, all reputedly handsome in the written testimony of that period, have certainly not suffered in that repute by Stuart’s painting of them. And Betsy Patterson, she of the wilful temperament and romantic career, who married the brother of an emperor, lives for all time as a beauty because of the ability of Stuart. Of this handsome woman a contemporary writes, “Mme. Jerome Bonaparte is a model of fashion, and many of our belles strive to imitate her; but without equal éclat, as Madame has certainly the most beautiful back and shoulders that ever were seen,” and again, “To her mental gifts were added the beauty of a