The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 18, 2024
Mary Campbell Stuart
c. 1815
(American, 1755–1828)
Framed: 102.2 x 85.1 x 10.2 cm (40 1/4 x 33 1/2 x 4 in.); Unframed: 83 x 65.7 cm (32 11/16 x 25 7/8 in.)
The Charles W. Harkness Gift 1927.394.2
Location: not on view
Description
Born in Rhode Island, Gilbert Stuart studied painting in London under fellow American expatriate Benjamin West (also in this gallery). He achieved great success as a fashionable portrait painter of high society, most famously George and Martha Washington. Here, he portrayed Mary Stuart (born Campbell), the great-granddaughter of Colonel Peter Bard, a New Jersey Supreme Court judge. She married Dr. James Stuart, whose portrait was also painted by Stuart (unrelated to the sitters). Both are shown seated in an Empire chair upholstered in brown brocade. Stuart painted the portrait pair on panel because the British naval blockade during the War of 1812 hindered the import of canvas, the artist’s preference.- family of the sitter, to Mrs. Mary Stuart Hamilton, Washington (1911); (Knoedler, 1911); Charles Harkness, New York.
- "Paintings in the Harkness Gift." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 2, part 2 (February 1928): 51-57. Mentioned: p. 54; Reproduced: p. 53 www.jstor.org
- {{cite web|title=Mary Campbell Stuart|url=false|author=Gilbert Stuart|year=c. 1815|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1927.394.2