Gilbert Stuart at the Met

I was fortunate enough to have the day off yeaterday, so I walked over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to check out the Gilbert Stuart exhibition.

Gilbert Stuart was the artist who painted the portraits of the prominent men and women of our country's early federal period, including our first five presidents. We've all seen his work reproduced in those American history textbooks we grew up on. When we imagine how George Washington or Thomas Jefferson look, we imagine the handiwork of Gilbert Stuart, whether we knew or bothered to think about it or not.

Obviously, seeing the real works right there in front of you instead of your old school book gives the portraits as much of an extra dimension into what the characters of the sitters may have been as you would expect. Probably more so, as Gilbert Stuart really was a talented painter, as this exhibit shows. Anyone in the New York area could do worse than to check it out (till January 16, 2005).

But, wherever you are, you can take a "virtual" tour of many of the portraits in the rooms of the exhibit by going here: http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Gilbert_Stuart/stuart_gallery.asp

Unfortunately, two of the best portraits of the show are not included in that link. One is of a woman I never heard of, named Catherine Brass Yates.

http://www.huntfor.com/absoluteig/gallery%2Fstuart%2Fstuart2%2Ejpg

The other is the 1824 portrait of John Adams, done when Adams was 90. The virtual tour mistakenly puts the 1815 portrait of Adams in with the notes for the later (and greater) portrait.

http://www.huntfor.com/absoluteig/gallery%2Fstuart%2Fstuart27%2Ejpg

Well, hope you enjoy it if you can take in the exhibit. The museum's admission is free for me, so I'll probably be seeing this and other things currently being exhibited a few more times, myself.