AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
The finest painter of America's early national period was only nineteen years old when he arrived in London in November 1775. Unlike his elder compatriots Benjamin West (see Pl. III) and John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), each of whom set out for Europe with an itinerary and a master plan, Gilbert Stuart (Pl. I) had only the notion that he might catch up with his best friend from childhood, Benjamin Waterhouse (Pl. IV), who had gone abroad for medical training. The painter who would later execute portraits of the first five American presidents began his career abroad playing the organ at Saint Katherine Cree Church near Foster Lane. He took squalid boarding-house rooms in ...