Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
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.
Provenance
family of the sitter, to Mrs. Mary Stuart Hamilton, Washington (1911); (Knoedler, 1911); Charles Harkness, New York.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Gilbert Stuart (American, born The Thirteen Colonies, 1755–1828)
- Date
- c. 1815
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 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.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- The Charles W. Harkness Gift
- Accession no.
- 1927.394.2
More by Gilbert Stuart in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00010226
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