Gilbert Stuart (1755 - 1828)

Labeled on the reverse: Mr. and Mrs. John B. Hannum and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Walker, Unionville, Pennsylvania

Carol Harriman Penn Smith Stewart;
to her daughter, Nancy Penn Smith Hannum;
to the present owner

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., November–November 1936.
Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Heritage: Five Baltimore Institutions Celebrate the American Bicentennial, April–June 1976, no. 65, p. 93.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, Gilbert Stuart, October 2004–July 2005, no. 67, p. 249.

Scumbled paint surface Really sketch-like; relined
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At a party hosted by Samuel Chase—a signer of the Declaration of Independence— Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s youngest brother and an officer in the French military, fell for the ambitious Elizabeth Patterson, widely known in equal portion for her beauty and her licentious fashions.3 Bonaparte’s courtship was opposed by Mr. Patterson—the President of the Bank of Baltimore—and by Napoleon, who insisted his younger brother find a more advantageous union within the European aristocracy.4 Nevertheless, Bonaparte and Patterson were married by Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore in December of 1803.5 Shortly thereafter, Bonaparte commissioned two portraits from Gilbert Stuart, both of which Stuart began to paint in February 1804.6 The artist was at the height of his popularity, and had recently exhibited a copy of his Athenaeum portrait among other works, to cultivate new business.7 Despite his popularity, Stuart could hardly afford assistance in his Washington studio, and consequently was overwhelmed by his many commissions. According to Jane Stuart, her father grew impatient with Bonaparte’s repeated attempts to expedite the triple portrait of Mrs. Bonaparte, and finally the two men came to heated words.8 Allegedly, Bonaparte suggested that Stuart depict Mrs. Bonaparte in a specific drapery, to which Stuart replied, “That you can buy at any milliner’s shop in this city!”9 Following the argument, Stuart refused to work on either portrait. Bonaparte attempted to arrange for the portraits’ retrieval through third parties, and offered to pay any price the artist would ask, but Stuart remained resolute in his refusal.10 Three months after Stuart began the Bonapartes’ portraits, Napoleon anointed himself Emperor of the French. The emperor recalled his youngest brother to France, and ordered that his marriage to Elizabeth Patterson be annulled.11

In its unfinished state, Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Jérôme Bonaparte gives us a rare view into Stuart’s process. Among other insights, the portrait provides a sample of Stuart’s blocking method, his development of tone and color, and his construction of drapery. Bonaparte’s relatively refined face sharply contrasts the vague background, and presents a highly developed focal point for the portrait both formally and psychologically. As an unfinished work, the present lot cleverly exemplifies the volatility for which Stuart was well known. At the same time, it conveys the dramatic instability of its sitter, whose social standing was of epic proportion in both its rise and fall. Jérôme Bonaparte embodies the negotiation between artist and sitter at its extreme, and at the same time demonstrates the masterful Romanticism with which Stuart endowed his works, even in their earliest stages.

The Baltimore Historical Society currently is exhibiting, “A Woman of Two Worlds: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and Her Quest for an Imperial Legacy.” The show explores Mrs. Bonaparte’s life with focus on the period after her marriage’s annulment by Napoleon, and her subsequent return to Baltimore. The exhibition will remain through June 9, 2014. 4

EXHIBITION

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., November–November 1936.

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Heritage: Five Baltimore Institutions Celebrate the American Bicentennial, April–June 1976, no. 65, p. 93.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, Gilbert Stuart, October 2004–July 2005, no. 67, p. 249.

LITERATURE

Adams, John Quincy, and Allan Nevins. The Diary of John Quincy Adams, 1794-1845: American Political, Social, and Intellectual Life from Washington to Polk (New York: Longmans, Green and, 1928) p. 22.

Barratt, Carrie Rebora and Ellen G. Miles, Gilbert Stuart (New Haven: Yale UP and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004) pp. 248–251.

Boles, John B. Maryland Heritage: Five Baltimore Institutions Celebrate the American Bicentennial (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society et al., 1976) p. 93 [pictured, no. 65].

Calvert, Rosalie Stier, and Margaret Law Callcott. Mistress of Riversdale : The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1991) p. 62.

Didier, Eugene L. “The Baltimore Bonapartes,” Scribner’s Monthly X (May 1875), pp. 1—8.

Didier, Eugene Lemoine. The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1879) pp. 39–40.

Knapp, Samuel Lorenzo, American Cultural History: 1607—1829: A Facsimile Reproduction of Lectures on American Literature, 1829 (Gainesville, Florida: Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1961) p. 198.

Magnússon, Magnús, and Rosemary Goring. “Jérôme Bonaparte,” Cambridge Biographical Dictionary (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1990) p. 175.

Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1879) pp. 144–146.

McCauley, Mary Carole. “Historical Society explores scandalous legacy of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte” Tribune Business News (Washington, June 8, 2013).

Mitchell, Sidney Alexander. “A Family Lawsuit: the Story of Elisabeth Patterson and Jérome Bonaparte” (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958), pp. 21–68.

Mount, Charles M. Gilbert Stuart: A Biography (New York: W.W. Norton, 1964), p. 282.

Park, Lawrence et al. Gilbert Stuart: an Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works (New York: W.E. Rudge, 1926) pp. 159–160 [pictured, no. 90].

Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte (New York: HarperCollins, 1997) pp. 384–388.

Whitley, William T. Gilbert Stuart (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1932) pp. 124–125.