Stuart (Gilbert) is born int Saunderstown [North Kingston], Rhode Island.

Gilbert Stuart studies art in Edinburgh and with Benjamin West in London, and arrives in Boston in approximately 1805. He lives initially in a rooming house near today’s Winthrop Square (then Otis Place), then at 59 Essex Street, then on Roxbury Street, and becomes the premiere portrait painter in the U.S. According to Washington Allston, “He seemed to dive into the thoughts of men; for they were made to rise and speak on the surface.” Stuart feels appreciated in Boston early in his career, once writing to a friend, “In England my efforts were compared to those of Van Dyck, Titian and other greater painters. But here! They compare them to the works of the Almighty!” After souring on Boston, Stuart dies in poverty on July 9, 1828, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Central Burying Ground.