Gilbert Stuart – 1755-1828

Born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, Stuart (born Stewart) became internationally recognized not only as the finest portrait painter of the new American republic but also its most distinctive, having created a style that drew on English precedents but that was also uniquely American. Of his more than 1,000 portraits his most famous is the unfinished “Atheneum Head,” the 1796 portrait of George Washington, which was for generations endlessly reproduced for display in classrooms and other public places.