1755 -1828 · London, Dublin and portrait of the young American Republic

Faces captured by a lively touch, conversation with the model and portraits of Washington make Gilbert Stuart the major interpreter of emerging American identity.

Gilbert Stuart was born in 1755 in North Kingstown, in the colony of Rhode Island. As a teenager, he learned from the Scottish painter Cosmo Alexander and traveled with him before returning to America. In 1775, he left for London, went through a difficult period then entered Benjamin West's studio. His full-length portrait of William Grant, The Skater, exhibited in 1782, revealed a brilliant manner: natural pose, moving silhouette and free painting of fabrics. Stuart opened his own studio, became a sought-after portrait painter, then worked in Dublin. His full-length portrait of William Grant, The Skater, exhibited in 1782, revealed a brilliant manner: natural pose, moving silhouette and free painting of fabrics. Stuart opened his own studio, became a sought-after portrait painter, then worked in Dublin. In debt but ambitious, he returned to the United States in 1793, settled in New York, Philadelphia then Boston. His stated goal is to painting George Washington. He created three types of portrait from nature, including the Vaughan, the Lansdowne and especially the Athenaeum, which remained unfinished. He kept the latter in his studio and used it to produce more than seventy-five replicas; his face of Washington, inverted, becomes that of the dollar bill. Stuart also paints John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, diplomats, judges and families of the new nation. He prefers to start directly with the face, without rigid preparatory drawing, and leads the session with conversation in order to grasp the character of the model. His touch often remains supple and unfinished in clothing, while the eyes and the mouth concentrate the psychological presence. Died in Boston in 1828, he left more than 1,100 portraits and an incomparable gallery of the American Republic in its beginnings. The "Gilbert Stuart" selection notably compares George Washington - Vaughan type and George Washington - portrait of the Athenaeum. His reading favors drawing.

Stuart seeks less the official pose than the moment when the face comes alive: look, mouth and conversation reveal the character of the model.