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Oh garth ye know me too well. I saw the exhibit when it first opened. Stuart was a real wheeler dealer who lived a checkered existence. The vast majority of his portraits were quite formulaic. Same pose, same lighting, same color, same bat channel.
The scariest part was the room where Stuart's Washington portraits were displayed. He had multiple portraits of only a few poses. It's very bizarre to see the subtle differences of the same exact pose. Some were really good and others were awful. But this was before reproduction and everyone wanted a portrait of #1 Pres.
However there was a portrait of Samuel Adams he did when Adams was ninety. It knocked my socks off. Different lighting and a true look into Adam's soul. I bought the catalogue just to have a record of the painting.
Living in NY is no picnic but there is no substitute for the accessibility to great art at the Met, the Frick, and the auction house previews. Everything I know about painting I learned at the Met.
I'll be in Atlanta this week, spreading the gospel including my slide show entitled "Everything I know about painting I learned at the Met."
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