Jane Stuart (1812 – April 27, 1888) was an American painter, best known for her miniature paintings and portraits, particularly those made of George Washington. She worked on and later copied portraits made by her father, Gilbert Stuart, and created her own portraits. In the early 19th century, she assumed the responsibility of supporting her family after her father's death. She first worked in Boston, but later moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where she was the first woman who painted portraits. In 2011, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
Early life
Jane Stuart, born in 1812 in Boston, Massachusetts, was the youngest child of renowned painter Gilbert Stuart and Charlotte Coates Stuart, who was 13 years his junior and "exceedingly pretty". They were married about September 1786.
The Stuarts had twelve children, five of whom died by 1815 and two others died while they were young, perhaps born after Jane. The known names of the children include Charles Gilbert, Jarvis, Emma, Elizabeth, Anne, Carlisle, Agnes Blagrove, and Jane. Charles had artistic and dramatic talent, Elizabeth was a published writer, and Carlisle was noted for his agreeable disposition and died in 1820, possibly from tuberculosis. Anne lived to 68 years of age, and Elizabeth married a man named Benjamin Stebbins. There were no descendants from the family.
Gilbert Stuart had mental illness for years, but was able to keep it hidden. The children had aspects of a traditional childhood, playing musical instruments and telling stories, but also were subject to a life of emotional turmoil.
Career
Early years and education
Gilbert Stuart believed that true talent did not need instruction, so he did not give his daughter lessons. Instead, Jane learned painting skills by watching him and copying his style, and through lessons by instructors or her brother Charles. She was kept busy by her father grinding paints and filling in backgrounds of his paintings. Stuart later said that she would have preferred it if her father had given her training.
She completed many of her father's partially finished paintings and made her own paintings. Affectionately called "boy" by her father, she was considered by him to be a better painter than he was at the same age. He wanted to, but was unable to, send her to London to study with George Downey. About 1820, she made a portrait of George Washington. It is held at the Kemper Art Museum of the Washington University in St. Louis.
Her father died in 1828. He was not good at managing money and when he died, his family was left in extreme poverty. The Boston Athenæum held a benefit exhibition of 250 his works in August 1828 in an effort to provide financial aid for the family.
Stuart opened a studio in Boston and began working as an artist to support her family. Three of her siblings—Elizabeth, Emma and an unnamed brother—were committed to psychiatric hospitals following her father's death.
Established career
After 1828, she received commissions to make dozens of miniature and full-sized paintings after the popular works created by her father, especially replicas of her father's portraits of President George Washington (1732–1799). Her painting of Washington, patterned after one made by her father, exhibited her skill as an artist, capturing light and depicting facial features and expression. Her paintings were so skillful that the paintings have been confused with the originals by art dealers. She also made paintings after other artists. She exhibited her works at the Boston Athenæum beginning in 1827 and often exhibited her works there and at the National Academy Museum and School in New York City until 1870.
Aside from copying works of others, she also created her own portraits and paintings, which reflected her personal style. She was said to be among the city's best portrait painters based upon her exhibit at the Academy of Fine Arts.
She studied painting in New York. In 1833 she exhibited at the New York Academy of Fine Arts. Besides earning money as a painter, Stuart was also an art teacher. In 1834, she painted Scene from a Novel or a Subject from Literature, now owned by Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She lived in New York between 1840 and 1842, and exhibited her works at the American Academy.