Jane Stuart was born sometime between 1808 and 1812, the youngest child of artist Gilbert Stuart and his wife, Charlotte Coates. Gilbert Stuart was the famed New England painter of European kings, American presidents, prominent citizens and a particularly well-known depiction of Sir William Grant known as The Skater. Stuart's George Washington portrait is still featured on the United States dollar bill; he made numerous copies of the original, aided by Jane, his favored assistant among his twelve children.
While Gilbert made use of Jane’s talents to help his own career, he apparently did little to encourage her own artistic possibilities. He never offered any formal guidance nor did Jane take lessons from other painters, and he called his daughter “Boy”—a confusing term that seemed to belittle her femininity and keep her in a subservient role.
Jane and The Gilbert Stuart Legacy
When Gilbert died in 1828, he was seventy-two, bankrupt, and had to be buried without a headstone. Any commissions earned from painting the major luminaries of the day were gone, and young Jane soon found herself taking on a new role—from being her father’s assistant and copyist to becoming family breadwinner and promoting the Gilbert Stuart painterly name. Her mother and other sisters now depended on her talent and ability to keep them financially afloat.
Jane’s studio in Boston was where she carried on the family tradition and painted portraits, literary and Bible scenes, miniatures, and many other copies of Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington or Athenaeum Portrait. Some of Jane’s own works were the coolly styled 1834 Scene from a Novel and The Weeping Magdalene.
Sarah Goodridge’s Portrait of Gilbert Stuart
Jane was a tireless proponent of her father’s legacy, offering concessions for his sometimes nasty temper (a consequence of genius) and even allowing another female artist to be praised for having produced the best likeness of Gilbert Stuart.
Sarah Goodridge was a mostly self-taught farm girl who became so skilled a miniaturist that in 1825, Gilbert Stuart asked her to paint his portrait. Goodridge accepted the honor and created a truthful miniature which did not exactly hide Stuart’s age and fondness for alcohol and snuff. Stuart loved the piece, however, and Jane even noted later how the “effigy” was “the most lifelike of anything ever painted of him in this country, although the expression is a little exaggerated.”
Later Years in Newport
Following a destructive fire in her Boston studio, Jane returned permanently to Newport, Rhode Island. She and her sister Anne were prominent on the social scene in that generally well-heeled city, but Jane again unfortunately seemed forced to accept a lesser or self-deprecating role. Having been born with not only her father’s talent but also his rather sharp features—and wit—Jane often joked about her “ugliness.” She dressed as a gorilla once for a costume party and declared herself to be “The Missing Link,” and she kept up her charade as an entertainingly eccentric old maid in order to be allowed into better social circles.
Jane Stuart died in 1888. Her work and life were spotlighted at a recent exhibit at Newport‘s Redwood Library, and while the true scope of her actual potential beyond her father can never be known, her efforts as a dutiful daughter show a notable gift and the ability to make the best of the artistic hand she was dealt.
Sources
- American Women Artists -- Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein (Avon Press, 1982)
- Jane Stuart -- CLARA Database, National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Gilbert Stuart’s Daughter Was a Fine Artist in Her Own Right -- The Providence Journal
