# Gilbert Stuart artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/gilbert-stuart/
Profile generated: 2026-05-09T11:16:04.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1755-12-03
- Death date: 1828-07-09
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Early American portraiture
- Common media: oil on canvas

## About Gilbert Stuart

Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828) was an American portrait painter born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and is widely regarded as one of the foremost portraitists in United States history. He studied painting in Edinburgh and London before returning to America, where he built a prolific practice depicting the young nation's political, military, and civic leaders. His most celebrated work is the unfinished Athenaeum Portrait of George Washington, begun in 1796; Stuart kept the original and produced scores of commissioned copies for patrons at home and abroad. That likeness of Washington has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for more than a century. Over a career spanning three decades, Stuart painted more than a thousand portraits of the most prominent figures of the early Republic, leaving a visual record that shaped how generations of Americans imagined their founders.

## Common works and media

Stuart's output consists almost entirely of oil-on-canvas portraits. The most commonly encountered works include individual bust- and half-length portraits of George Washington (especially versions derived from the Athenaeum, Vaughan, and Lansdowne types), portraits of early American presidents, statesmen, military officers, and civic leaders, and smaller commissioned likenesses of private sitters. Period copies and workshop-assisted versions of his Washington portraits are also frequent in the secondary market. Drawings and preparatory sketches are rare but exist in museum collections.

## Market and appraisal context

Gilbert Stuart's portraits appear at auction in the American Paintings, Old Master, and 19th-century categories. Value depends heavily on whether a work can be firmly attributed to Stuart's own hand rather than to his workshop or to the many copyists who reproduced his Washington portraits. Portraits of recognized historical figures, especially Founding Fathers, tend to attract stronger demand. Provenance, condition, exhibition history, and whether the painting has been documented in Stuart scholarship are key factors in appraisal. Collectors should be aware that numerous copies and derivative versions of Stuart's most famous compositions circulate in the market.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum, library-authority, and scholarly sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Gilbert Stuart, identity data is drawn from the Getty Union List of Artist Names, Library of Congress, VIAF, RKD, and the Tate collection.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/75878
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50083265
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41402
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/61689381/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500010392
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Stuart
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gilbert-stuart-537