Background.

Without aristocratic patronage and with limited public interest in the arts, American artists faced a serious problem in finding financial support. Widespread demand for portraits made portraiture the most viable way for them to earn a living, and many artists turned to this form of art. The business and commercial aspects of artistic endeavor were especially conspicuous in portrait painting. Artists had traditionally regarded history painting as at the top of the artistic hierarchy and portraiture as at the bottom. Despite the financial opportunities it offered, artists aspired to higher forms of art, seeing portrait painting as limiting and demeaning, the artist was often required to sacrifice art to accommodate the subject's personal vanity.

Gilbert Stuart.

As one of the most successful and prolific American portraitists of the early republic, Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), a Rhode Island native, did not share his contemporaries'...