"Little Known in England"

Gilbert Stuart learned his art in London, and before returning to the U.S. to paint his famed portraits of Washington* he did brilliant work there. Last week one of his best British portraits, never before seen in the U.S., went on exhibition in Washington's National Gallery. Entitled The Skater, it portrayed an elegant gentleman named William Grant taking a whirl on the ice in St. James's. Park. The picture showed that Stuart quickly learned the knack of making his subjects look noble and lifelike at the same time.

Stuart neglected to sign The Skater, and Englishmen came to assume that one of their own great 18th Century portraitists must have painted it. In 1878 the picture was shown at London's Royal Academy, and a contemporary critic wrote: "A more graceful and manly figure was surely never painted by an English artist, and if Gainsborough were that artist this is unquestionably his masterpiece."

The owner, wondering whether he had a genuine Gainsborough, wrote for information to the skater's son in Virginia. The portrait, came the reply, "was painted by an American artist little known in England but highly appreciated in America. His name, Stuart."

-Of which Stuart himself painted over 100 copies of three main versions. Best-known version: that used on the $$ U.S. postage stamp (1932-38).

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