Gilbert Stuart

Over the course of his career, Gilbert Stuart built a reputation for his skills as a portrait painter on both sides of the Atlantic. He was born in Rhode Island and trained under portraitist Cosmo Alexander. Although Stuart had established a name for himself as a portraitist, he struggled to gain commissions at the onset of the Revolutionary War due to his Loyalist sympathies. He moved to London in 1775 where he met Benjamin West and became the artist's principal assistant. During this period, Stuart's style evolved and resembled the more fashionable style of portraiture practiced by Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney. Unable to pay off his expenses and debts, Stuart fled to Dublin in 1787 where he remained for six years until returning to America.

Dr. Carrie Rebora Barratt, to whom we are grateful, has confirmed the attribution of this portrait to Gilbert Stuart. She believes that the work dates from the 1790s and was most likely painted during his tenure in Dublin, due to the painterly quality of the sitter's dress, and corresponds quite closely to two female portraits from Stuart's Irish period: the Portrait of Mrs. George Hamilton¹ and the Portrait of Philadelphia Hannah Freame Dawson, Viscountess of Cremorne.² 

1. Reproduced in Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart, an illustrated descriptive list of his works, New York 1926, plate 372.

2. Philadelphia, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (inv. no. 1999.11, oil on canvas, 30 by 25 in.). https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/portrait-philadelphia-hannah.