 Hello from the National Archives Public Programs and Education staff. My name is Breanne Robertson and I am an education specialist at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Welcome to the National Archives Comes Alive Young Learners Program. Today we meet Gilbert Stewart, portrayed by actor and storyteller Bob Gleeson. Our programs are brought to you from the National Archives Public Programs and Education team and the National Archives Foundation. You can find information for teacher and student programs on the National Archives website, archives.gov, under Archives News, upcoming events, and if you follow the National Archives on social media. Gilbert Stewart was known as a brilliant portraitist of the federal or post-revolutionary war era. Stewart painted several of the iconic images of George Washington we know today, including the one used on the $1 bill. Stewart's attention to detail led to many commissions. His subjects included the first five U.S. presidents, their families, and many Americans of the day. His work can be seen in museums across the country. The National Archives has many records related to Gilbert Stewart, which can be found in the National Archives online catalog and in our education-specific resource, DocsTeach, at docsteach.org. We have several copies of paintings by Gilbert Stewart that were captured as part of the George Washington Bicentennial Commission celebration back in 1931 and 1932. The commission's purpose was to celebrate the birth and accomplishments of Washington and to collect, preserve, and publish writings, artworks, and photographs pertinent to his life and times. On this slide we have included several key figures such as George Washington, first president of the United States, James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, and his wife Dolly Madison, and James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States. These images are a few of the many paintings Gilbert Stewart created during his lifetime. As you can see, these are copies of the paintings. Gilbert Stewart's original paintings can be seen at various museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Now let's give a warm welcome to Gilbert Stewart. I was born six miles from Patawoon, ten miles from Papasquash, about four miles from Cornediquot, and not far from the spot where the famous battle with a war like Piquots was fought. When I told that to people in England, they assumed that I come from India. In fact, I was born in Rhode Island. My parents were merchants. They sold snuff, which is powdered tobacco that you sniff up your nose and it's a dreadful habit. Don't do it. Early on, I decided that I wanted to be an artist. I had a talent for it. Everybody agreed. I would draw pictures of my neighbors in the dirt. I would draw on the walls. I would draw on any flat surface. And it was decided that, well, if I didn't have a head for business, at least I could do something that I had a talent for. Now, in those times, there wasn't much opportunity for artists to make a living in the Americas. You might get along as what they call a limner. And a limner is someone who does all sorts of painting. They usually aren't very good at it, but they get along. They still make crude portraits of your family or your aunt Agatha or somebody like that. They will paint sides for your business to hang outside the window. They would also, if you happen to own a fine coach and six horses, you could get the limner to paint your coat of arms on the door of the coach. So everyone will know how important you think you are. Now, I had it in mind to paint fine portraits of famous people and make a very, very nice living out of that. But there wasn't a whole lot of that sort of opportunity in the Americas, as I said. Then I met an artist named Cosmo Alexander. He was from Scotland. He was touring the Americas with his paintings, hoping to encourage people to have their portraits done by him. And when he saw the little scribblings that I had been doing, he thought I really had talent. So he took me on as an apprentice. An apprentice is somebody who studies with a master. It would be a blacksmith or a ginsmith or a goldsmith or a housewright. But you study for seven years and then they give you a suit of clothes and you can go off and start your own business. So Cosmo Alexander decided that I would have much more opportunity back in Scotland where he was from. So we got on a ship and off we went to Scotland where Mr. Alexander was going to introduce me to famous artists and rich people and my career would be made. Then he died. And there I was in Scotland knowing nobody with no chance of making a living. There was only one thing to do after a while. When I ran out of money, I decided to go home again. And I signed on as a sailor on a coal ship. And the less said about my experiences as a sailor, the better. But it did convince me that I was no good as a sailor and should stick to art. In the Americas, I moved to Boston and kept on practicing my art and eventually established a reputation as a rather fine portraitist. Then on the 18th of April of 75, the British and the Americans began shooting each other and they were going to be shooting each other for the next eight years. And that's very bad for the art business. So my parents who were loyal to King George decided to leave town all the way to Nova Scotia. There was absolutely no chance for an artist in Nova Scotia at that time. So I decided to go back to England and see if I could make my reputation there. I was a much better painter now than I was the last time I was there. So I got on another ship and sailed to England and found out when I got to London that England is rather well supplied with very, very fine artists at Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, all sorts of famous people who got all the famous people in line to have their portraits painted. Not much work left over for me, I'm afraid. Well, I did the best I could. I had some friends who were studying there. One Benjamin Waterhouse was studying medicine and he was very kind to me. He would have me over to his house and meet people he knew and gave me some opportunities to paint some paintings. But I still needed regular work just to survive and eat. One day I was walking down the street while I heard an organ being played in a church. So I went in and asked what was the celebration for and they said, oh, we're auditioning for a new organist. And I thought, well, now here this is good. It turns out I play the organ rather well back in Rhode Island and in Boston, just for fun sometimes. So I asked if I might try out and they said yes, of course, yes, and I went up and played much better than any of the other applicants for the job. And so they gave the job to me and I was able to support myself to a degree playing the organ in this church. Still, it wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a fine painter and I tried and tried and failed and failed to attach that is to attract the very rich clients. And finally, I was on the point where I had no place to live, not much to eat and my clothes were rather shabby. I decided I was going to have to swallow my pride and ask for help. Now, the person who asked for help in the world of art in London at that time was Benjamin West. Here's his picture, which I painted. A delightful, wonderful pine man who spent a lot of his time encouraging young artists, particularly artists like myself from America. He had come from America himself. His family were Quakers, you see, and Quakers really don't believe in the arts or music or dancing. So they raised money to send young Benjamin to London where he would fit right in as an artist and he did. He was very, very good. It's so good in fact that he became the official historic painter for King George III. He had these enormous paintings of historical happenings, mythology, scenes from mythology, scenes from history, on what I call his ten acre canvases. They were gigantic. And the reason they were gigantic was that King George had very big houses to live in with the very big walls. And so they needed very big paintings to cover the walls. That's where Benjamin West came in. But he came to his studio to see the paintings, to be painted, to enjoy his company. And I wrote him a letter begging him to have pity on a poor struggling artist from America who would love to be able to do some little things in his studio to study and improve by lot. I showed up at his door one night when I were having dinner. And Mr. Rush sent a friend to the door. I'm sorry, that Benjamin Rush adopted. I'm talking about Benjamin West the painter. Not Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin either. Too many vengeance. Anyway, he sent one of his friends to answer the door and he asked him who I was and where was I from? Who did I know? I said, well, my uncle is Joseph Anthony, very rich, famous merchant from Philadelphia. He thought, well, that should be enough of a resume. He went back and told Mr. West who I was and where I'd come from. And he invited me in and asked me a few questions about art and decided, well, you look like an intelligent young man. Come to my studio tomorrow. You could help me with my big paintings. I need somebody to paint in the draperies and things so that I can concentrate on the figures. And so that's what I did for quite a long time, painting draperies on Benjamin West's 10 acre canvases. And he was the delightful man. And his other apprentices were delightful people. It was a wonderful job to have. But I continued to practice my art and eventually attracted some customers here and there. People wanted paintings of their children. That's better. I don't know any children who run around looking like that all the time. But that's the way the art business was. You would take the face of your client, paint the face. They would go home and then you'd paint in everything else. You'd give them wonderful clothes that they've never owned and hairstyles that were never theirs and all sorts of props in the background that they didn't have. But it made such a nice impression that people love that sort of thing. So you had to get used to that. Also gentlemen would bring in their wives to be painted. And you do the best you could with them, depending on how they look to begin with. Most of them were quite lovely young ladies. But once in a while, well, you'd get one that was, well, they had, they were lovely people and had a nice personality. But they would not stop traffic, you see. And of course, the gentleman, the husband, would be very impressed with the process and say, well, I wanted to look so and I wanted to have this. Can't you make it a little bit more attractive? That got to be old rather fast. I don't know why people think they can bring in a potato and expecting to paint a peach. But if you wanted to keep the business up, you painted peaches, as often as you could. So there I was painting draperies for Mr. West and painting portraits of people who may or may not look like they'd like to look. And one day I was with a fellow who wanted a painting and it was a very cold day. While we were discussing what he wanted, he said, you know that it's too interesting a day to spend cooped up. It's very cold out. I think there'll be ice on the river. We should go ice skating. Well, that was all right with me. It turns out I'm a pretty good ice skater too. I lived in New England where the ice came in October and stayed till May. So I said, right, fine, let's go ice skating. And so we did. And as I watched this gentleman curling around on the ice, I thought, wait a minute, this is a wonderful idea. I will paint this gentleman ice skating. Nobody has ever painted a gentleman ice skating before. They're usually on horseback or riding in carriages or standing next to cannons. I'll paint this gentleman ice skating. And so I did. There he is. There we go. Now we put this painting on exhibition at the next great exhibit at the Academy and it created a sensation. Nobody had ever seen such a painting before. And they thought, well, this must be a fine painting by Benjamin West. Or no, no, it's Joshua Reynolds. It's his painting. Oh, no, maybe it's Mr. Kingsborough's painting. They were astonished to find out that it was young Gilbert Stewart who nobody knew painting. That cemented my reputation and I began to get much more business, which was nice. It allowed me to get my own home with my own studio, my own apprentices to paint draperies on my painting. I even had the wherewithal to get married, which I did. I also gave a lot of parties, which you were expected to give. You'd be invited to their parties. They have to be invited to your parties. Those things run into money. And it wasn't long before I owed an awful lot of money to some very serious people who if you didn't pay them would put you in debtor's prison, which was sort of like a cheap hotel where you'd have to stay until you paid off your debts somehow. Well, there I was. I was able at least to continue to entertain clients and paint paintings and finally was able to buy my way out of debtor's prison and decided it would be a good idea if I lived somewhere else, perhaps Dublin. So I packed up my family and my paints and moved to Dublin. I began by that time to trade on my reputation as one of the finest portrait painters in England and painted dozens and dozens of paintings. And of course had dozens and dozens of dinner parties and expensive knickknacks and coaches and horses and all those things. A respectable prosperous man is supposed to have and it wasn't wrong before I was in an Irish debtor's prison. Now what was I going to do? Well, I had a plan. I was going to relocate to America where I could paint a portrait of the most famous man in the world, George Washington. Now, he was quite popular in England by that time because of something that George III had said. When the war was over and Washington had won, George asked one of his advisors, well, this Washington fellow, what's he going to do now? The advisor said, well, we understand he's going to retire from the army and go back to this farm. And King George said, why, if he does that, he'll be the greatest man in the world. Because you see, nobody had ever done that. Once you won, you took over Julius Caesar took over Rome when he won the war. Mr. Napoleon took over France when he won the war. You see, it's very unusual for the general to just give it all away and go home. And he did that twice. First as the general, he retired, then they asked him to be president for eight years and he retired from that too. He just couldn't seem to wait to get back to his farm. It's all he ever wanted. Well, a man that famous, everybody would want a portrait of him. So I would paint a portrait and I would make copies and sell them and I would be wealthy and he would be even more famous than before. But I had to get out of debtors' prison first. So I advertised to come to the address of the debtors' prison and I'll paint portraits. You only have to pay half the price to start and you'll pay the other half on the portrait is finished. And I started dozens of portraits, collecting half the price so I could pay off my debts and then simply packed up and left the country with all the unfinished paintings waited. I knew that the young artists of Ireland would get employment finishing those paintings for the clients so I didn't feel too bad about that. We sailed to New York and I set up shop painting the famous people who were living in New York at the time so that I would establish a reputation in America and be able to approach General Washington as a famous American painter. I painted the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court here. John Jay in his beautiful red robes. And he was very pleased with that and so recommended me to other famous and likely rich people to paint their portraits as well. I had established a reputation after a little while and decided then it was time to move to Philadelphia where at the time General Washington now President Washington was living. They were still building the federal city of Washington. So the general president was living in a very nice house at the corner of Sixton Market Street that used to belong to Robert Morris who was in debtor's prison at the time. Well, I approached the general's house to see if he would allow me to paint him. And as I came to the front walk the door flow open and a servant came flying through the air and landing on the sidewalk tumbled a little bit. And I said, What has happened? What have you done? He said, Oh, well, I was cleaning up in the painting room where Mr. Charles Wilson Peale, the famous artist, was painting the president. And I was sweeping and the painting was cleaning up against the wall. The paint was still wet and while I was sweeping the dust was getting on the painting. The president walked in and saw that and thought, Oh, no, the painting's ruined. You'll have to sit for it all over again, which he wasn't very happy to do. So he just sort of picked me up by the collar and the belt and threw me out the front door. I thought, Oh, fine. The president is in a bad mood already. Another painter is going to come in and approach him to do something he doesn't really care to do. However, I was fortunate that he had actually heard of me and seeing some of my work. And I thought, Well, this is it. I asked if I might paint his portrait because so many people wanted to have a fine portrait of their presidents. And he agreed. And so we had some time together. I would come early in the morning so that I wouldn't waste his whole day. And of course, again, you know, you just take the face and fill in everything else later. So that's what I did in this case and came up with this portrait. It was bought by a gentleman named Vaughn and known as the Vaughn portrait. I wasn't completely satisfied with it. You see, my aim as an artist is to capture the true character of my client, to show them as he really is, not the way other people think of him or they might think of himself, but as it really is. So I applied to see if he might allow me to paint another portrait. And as it turned out, Mrs. Washington, Martha, was anxious to have paintings of the two of them to hang on either side of their fireplace, I suppose. And so she pressured the general president into posing for those portraits, which I spent a very great deal of time making sure that it was what I wanted. I never quite could. That's the famous portrait that everybody's familiar with. I would be very, very careful and take good time getting the character right. One day, I thought that I was monopolizing too much of the general's time, the president. And I took a day off and allowed some of the other local artists to come in and have a try at him. And I stopped by at one point to visit and found five of the Peel family painting them all at once, Grafiel, Rubens, Rembrandt, Charles Wilson Peel himself, and his brother James, who made little tiny pictures of people. And I tiptoed back out of the room and went to find Lady Washington and told her, you've got to do something. President's in grave danger, why he's being Peel all around. I don't know if she thought it was funny, but I thought it was quite generous. Well, eventually I got another commission, a very wealthy fellow named Landsdown. Marcus at Landsdown are one of those British knights of barons or whoever they think they are. And he wanted a full length portrait of the president because he was a very great admirer of him. And so I set to work to produce this portrait, which has become known as the Landsdown portrait. And it was a sensation. Nobody had ever created a portrait of the general president in that particular pose in that particular setting. Usually he was painted with horses and cannons and battlefields in the background. But this was a picture of President Washington. Ready for business. It was so popular that I was called upon to paint several copies of it. And other artists took the liberty of painting copies of it themselves. A particular fellow named Winston came to see me one day in my studio in Germantown, Pennsylvania. And he said that he had painted six copies of the Landsdown portrait. And he thought that he could get much more money for them if I were to just come and see them and tap the canvases with a paintbrush. So that he could say that Gilbert Stewart had given it the final touch. And then he could charge twice as much and he would share the money with me. And I looked at him. And I said, Mr. Winston Lee, you may leave now. Would you like to use the stairs or the window? And I never saw him again. However, his paintings certainly made the rounds. The famous painting that Donnie Madison is supposed to have saved on the British set fire to the White House. I'm pretty sure that's one of Mr. Winston's copies and not my original portrait. However, I have always had plenty of work to do since that time. My portraits of General Washington, president, made me more famous than I'd been in London. And so I was very, very happily painting away presidents and captains of industry and beautiful ladies and their children as long as I can. And well, I've got to be going soon because I have many more faces. Thank you so much for sharing about your, your life and your career. I'm wondering a question. You know, we've getting getting some questions from the audience, but also, you know, one of my own if you might talk about some of the artists that you admired who kind of helped inspire, you know, the style and the technique that you adopted in your own work. Well, I was very fond of many of the famous, famous portrait painters, seeing painters of England. I did not feel that I had to imitate their style, which many young artists made the mistake of doing. I wanted to find my own particular niche, my own style, my own method so that when you saw painting by me, you knew that that was a Gilbert Stuart painting, not to be confused with anybody else. But of all the artists I admired. The most interesting one was that Charles Wilson Peele of Philadelphia. Not only was he a fine painter, but he ran his own Natural History Museum, and did things like invent a private steam bath, portable steam bath. He invented false teeth, very, very fine porcelain false teeth, which General Washington could have used but alas, he didn't live long enough to try a set of them. Mr. Peele had 17 children and most of them became artists. He had a theory that anybody can learn to paint just a few lessons. So he taught all his friends and relatives to paint. I did not share his enthusiasm for his particular style, but I admired his industry. So that's that's the sort of thing I impressed by fine artists and by people who were able to make a living. So you said that Peele taught his children to paint. Did any of your children become artists? My daughter Jane had the most talent as an artist. She began to assist me eventually making the copies of the Washington portrait that I would sell when I needed money. I would sell all of my hundred dollar bills, and I would sketch out the face and she'd fill in the background and often sell it the next day. She became quite a famous artist on her own, as a matter of fact. So it was a pleasure to watch her improve and develop as an artist. And so what did Washington think about you not finishing his portrait? He came up to me one day and said, you know, I understand that Lady Washington is pressuring you to finish my portrait, but I know why you're not finishing it. I know that you need to supplement your income by making copies of it. So take as long as you want. And if you get a chance to finish it, send it along. Otherwise, there's enough people painting my portrait that one portrait won't be missed. And I thought that was very generous of him and I did indeed paint quite a few copies of that portrait. So what was your favorite subject of the many that you that you painted over your career? Oh, you know, they can be quite irascible with subjects. They'll be bored with sitting there uncomfortable. They keep wondering when they're going to be done so they get back to business. They have not much to say with a very hard time engaging General Washington in conversation to relax him to get the true man finally was able to talk about courses, which he loved. And that made him relax. But my favorite and client sitter was President John Adams, who said he would be glad to sit for me every day of the year from January to December. Because I let him do what he likes and we have wonderful conversations. So he was a very jolly client to have. We got along very well. I enjoyed painting. And his beautiful wife as well advocate. So we have a questions we've got visitors today in New York Washington DC so they are in a good place to go to some of those museums I mentioned earlier to see your paintings in person and also Burke Virginia. And one of them is asking, how many copies of the lands down portrait did you paint and is the one that is in the National Gallery that is it yours or is it a copy? Ah, well, I myself painted three versions of lands down portrait. I don't know how many more Mr. Winston painted and where they have to be. I would have to go and examine the one in the portrait gallery to see if I can determine whether it's my Mr. Winston. I would know instantly by my brushwork, but I have not had the opportunity to see it. So I suppose the jury is still out about that. You never can tell, but you can get the real thing except those substitutes. Now Mr. Lansdowne had his portrait required a long time. And I understand, eventually he lent it to this country for some great celebration or other and it sort of stayed here. And then one of his descendants decided they wanted to sell it for an enormous amount of money. And finally, the Americans had to take up a collection and they get great big captains of industry to donate an enormous amount of money to buy the lands down portrait. So if you can find the lands down portrait anywhere, that is the genuine article. All right, so our final question for today. What advice do you as Gilbert Stewart have for young people today? Well, having been a young person myself, my advice would be to determine what it is that satisfies you, a thing you can do that makes you happy and pursue it and never, never, never, never give up. And with that, I think that is wonderful advice for young people today that, you know, perseverance and then continuing to try is, is a terrific advice. Thank you so much for joining us today and telling us about your life and about your career and your many accomplishments and painting several of our first presidents. That's quite an honor. With that, I want to point out again to our viewers at home one last look at the Docs teach educational activity related to Gilbert Stewart and his paintings in the National Archives collection. And on that can be found on docs teach.org. And next month we'll be hosting another program another young learners program, and it will be featuring General Ulysses s grant commander of the United States Army during the Civil War. So we hope that you'll come back and join us for that.