Gilbert Stuart lives practically next door to me, in the Central Burying Ground in Boston Common. One of America's most famous early 19th Century portrait artists, Gilbert (as we call him, being neighbors and all) is perhaps best known for his unfinished likeness of George Washington, often called the Athenaeum Portrait; it's the image that graces the US one dollar bill. In his lifetime, he painted more than 1,000 portraits, including those of six presidents, yet thanks to bad spending habits he died a pauper, which is how he ended up as my neighbor in a not-very-swank cemetery in downtown Boston.
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Interesting, I have not heard of him before!
Posted by: Kalyn Denny | April 07, 2022 at 09:12 AM
Love this, and so happy to see you're blogging again. Yay!
Posted by: Jenijen | April 07, 2022 at 02:52 PM