29 Facts About Jane Stuart

Jane Stuart was an American painter, best known for her miniature paintings and portraits, particularly those made of George Washington.

Jane Stuart worked on and later copied portraits made by her father, Gilbert Stuart, and created her own portraits.

Jane Stuart first worked in Boston, but later moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where she was the first woman who painted portraits.

Jane Stuart, born in 1812 in Boston, Massachusetts, was the youngest child of renowned painter Gilbert Stuart and Charlotte Coates Stuart, who was 13 years his junior and "exceedingly pretty".

Gilbert Jane Stuart had mental illness for years, but was able to keep it hidden.

Gilbert Jane Stuart believed that true talent did not need instruction, so he did not give his daughter lessons.

Jane Stuart was kept busy by her father grinding paints and filling in backgrounds of his paintings.

Jane Stuart later said that she would have preferred it if her father had given her training.

Jane Stuart completed many of her father's partially finished paintings and made her own paintings.

Jane Stuart wanted to, but was unable to, send her to London to study with George Downey.

Also in 1820, Jane Stuart painted a copy of her father's "Washington at Dorchester Heights," which resides in the Old Colony House in Newport, Rhode Island.

Jane Stuart was not good at managing money and when he died, his family was left in extreme poverty.

Jane Stuart opened a studio in Boston and began working as an artist to support her family.

Jane Stuart's painting of Washington, patterned after one made by her father, exhibited her skill as an artist, capturing light and depicting facial features and expression.

Jane Stuart's paintings were so skillful that the paintings have been confused with the originals by art dealers.

Jane Stuart was said to be among the city's best portrait painters based upon her exhibit at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Besides earning money as a painter, Jane Stuart was an art teacher.

Jane Stuart lived in New York between 1840 and 1842, and exhibited her works at the American Academy.

Jane Stuart continued to paint from the 1850s, including making paintings from daguerreotypes.

Jane Stuart wrote three articles about her father for Scribner's Monthly between June 1876 and July 1877.

Jane Stuart struggled financially, but kept up appearances during the Gilded Age of Newport by selling her father's or her paintings to by-passers.

Jane Stuart was prominent in all literary circles, and her reputation for wit and brilliance extended far outside the limits of New England.

Jane Stuart remained unmarried throughout her life, but was a matchmaker for others.

Jane Stuart was a noted socialite, known for her "droll wit and fascinating personality", like that of her father.

Jane Stuart's mother died in 1847 at 77 years of age.

Jane Stuart then established a studio in her family home in Newport, Rhode Island.

Jane Stuart acquired the house at 86 Mill Street in Newport in 1863.

Jane Stuart is buried at a family monument at the Common Burying Ground in Newport, Rhode Island.

Jane Stuart's works included in the exhibition included two portraits she made of her father, and portraits of George and Martha Washington.