Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> Gilbert Stuart Newton

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and StanKlos.com 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor.



Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 



Gilbert Stuart Newton

NEWTON, Gilbert Stuart, artist, born in Half-fax, Nova Scotia, 20 September, 1797 ; died in Wimbledon, England, 5 August, 1835. His father, Edward, was British collector of customs at Halifax; his mother was the daughter of a Scottish loyalist named Stuart, who fled from Rhode Island to Halifax, and thence to England, at the beginning of the Revolution. After the father's death Mrs. Newton removed with her family to the neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, about 1803. Gilbert left Boston when yet a youth and went to Italy, where he studied a year. He had painted some pictures and portraits before leaving home which excited attention and were thought very promising, and while in Italy he produced a portrait of an official which was much admired, but he decided to go to England. In Paris, on his way, he met Washington Allston, Sir David Wilkie, and Charles R. Leslie, and returned with Leslie to England. He was admitted as a student at the Royal academy, elected an associate in 1828, and an academician in 1831. His career in England was one of brilliant success. Upon his first arrival in that country he and Washington Irving had lodgings together in Langham place. Irving writes in 1824 to Leslie: " When you see Newton, remember me affectionately to him. I often look back with fondness and regret to the times we lived together in London in a delightful community of thought and feeling, struggling our way onward in the world, but cheering and encouraging each other. I find nothing to supply the place of that heartfelt fellowship." In 1831 Mr. Newton was ill, and, as his physician urged his taking a voyage, he sailed for the United States in October of that year. The following August he married in Boston, and he returned to England with his wife in October, 1832. Nearly three years later he died, leaving his widow and one daughter. He was buried in the cemetery of the village church at Wimbledon. A monument, executed by Sir Francis Chantry, was raised to him by a few of his fellow-academicians, bearing the inscription : " To Gilbert Stuart Newton this monument is raised by a few friends who admired him as an artist and loved him as a man." What is to be said of Mr. Newton as a man may be read in the letters of Leslie and Washington Irving that are quoted in the " History of the Arts of Design," in a notice of Mr. Newton by William Dunlap. Dunlap shows some irritation that Newton should have considered himself an Englishman, but he was certainly such by birth and parentage, and his whole career was in England. He took to portraiture at first, mainly, it appears, because he disliked the labor of study required for effective genre painting, in which direction his greatest talent lay. The remonstrances of his friends, however, particularly Washington Irving, had their effect, and he soon afterward produced his first subject picture, "A Poet Reading his Verses to an Impatient Gallant." He had an extraordinary eye for color, and possessed considerable humor, excelling particularly in the illustration of scenes from Molidre, "Gil Blas," etc. Besides portraits, he painted about sixty pictures, including "Falstaff escaping in the Buck-Basket," "Girl at her Devotions," "The Adieu," "The Dull Lecture," " The Duenna," "The Late Player," in the New York historical society's rooms, and "The Trunk Scene in 'Cymbeline.'" Many of them have been engraved. His portraits include likenesses of Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, Thomas Moore, Sydney Smith, Henry Hallam, and Washington Irving. While Mr. Newton was in this country in 1831-'2 he painted eight small portraits. His "Dull Lectare" is in the Lenox library, New York city. Washington Irving described this picture, at the request of the artist, in these lines: " Frostie age, frostie age, Vain all your learning! Drowsie page, drowsie page, Evermore turning!Young head no lore will heed, Young heart's a reckless rover;Young beautie, while you read, Sleeping, dreams of absent lover."

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on Gilbert Stuart Newton.


Samuel Huntington First President of the United States of America

Samuel Huntington
First President of the United States of America
in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781 to July 6, 1781

 

President Who? Forgotten Founders Part II



Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

e-mail us

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum