Gilbert Stuart Newton (2 September 1795 – 5 August 1835) was a British artist.
Life
Newton was born in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, the twelfth child and youngest son of
Henry Newton, a customs official, and Ann, his wife, daughter of Gilbert Stuart, snuff manufacturer at
Boston, Massachusetts, of Scottish descent, and sister to
Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...
the portrait painter. His parents left Boston in 1776 as the British withdrew; but on the death of his father in 1803 his mother returned with her family to Charlestown, near Boston.
Newton was intended for a commercial career, but was taken on as a pupil by his uncle, Gilbert Stuart. Newton came to Europe with an elder brother, and studied painting at
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
. In 1817 he visited Paris on his way to England and there met
Charles Robert Leslie
Charles Robert Leslie (19 October 1794 – 5 May 1859) was an English genre painter.
Biography
Leslie was born in London to American parents. When he was five years of age he returned with them to the United States, where they settled in Philad ...
, as well as
Washington Allston
Washington Allston (November 5, 1779 – July 9, 1843) was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting. He was well known during his lifetime for ...
and
David Wilkie David Wilkie may refer to:
* David Wilkie (artist) (1785–1841), Scottish painter
* David Wilkie (surgeon) (1882–1938), British surgeon, scientist and philanthropist
* David Wilkie (footballer) (1914–2011), Australian rules footballer
* David ...
. After visiting the Netherlands Newton went with Leslie to London, and entered as a student at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
.
He revisited America for a short time and there married Sarah Williams Sullivan, granddaughter of
James Swan (financier)
James Swan (1754 – 31 July 1830) was an early American patriot and financier based in Boston in the 18th and 19th centuries. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty and participated in the Boston Tea Party. Swan was twice wounded at the Battle o ...
,
Hepzibah Swan
Hepzibah Swan née Clarke (died August 14, 1825) was an American socialite of Boston, Massachusetts. She was a wealthy and well connected heiress who was among the most cosmopolitan, intelligent, and erudite of ladies in Federal Boston. Madame ...
and
James Sullivan (governor)
James Sullivan (April 22, 1744 – December 10, 1808) was an American lawyer and politician in Massachusetts. He was an early associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, served as the state's attorney general for many years, ...
, returning to England with his wife. In 1827 he was elected into the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
as an Honorary Academician. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1829 and an academician in 1832. Soon after his election to the Academy he started suffering from
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
, and was placed in an asylum at
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
. He continued to paint there, where he died suffering from
consumption
Consumption may refer to:
*Resource consumption
*Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically
* Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms
* Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
, at Chelsea on 5 August 1835. He was buried in St Mary's Church
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
. His grave is clear to see in the north end of the churchyard. His wife Sarah had returned to America with their daughter Annie Stewart Newton a few months before, and subsequently remarried.
Works
Newton first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818, sending portraits in that and the five following years, including one of
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
, with whom he had become acquainted through Leslie. In 1823 he exhibited at the royal academy ''Don Quixote in his Study'', the first of the subject-pictures drawn from poetry or romance with which his name was subsequently identified. It was followed by ''M. de Pourceaugnac, or the Patient in Spite of Himself (1824)'', ''The Dull Lecture'' (1825), and ''Captain Macheath upbraided by Polly and Lucy'' (1826); this last picture was purchased by the
Marquis of Lansdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Origins
This branch of the Fitzmaurice famil ...
, who also collected at
Bowood
Bowood is a Grade I listed Georgian era, Georgian English country houses, country house in Wiltshire, England, that has been owned for more than 250 years by the Fitzmaurice family. The house, with interiors by Robert Adam, stands in extensive g ...
''The Vicar of Wakefield reconciling his Wife to Olivia'' (1828) and ''Polly Peachum''. Two pictures, ''The Forsaken'' and ''The Lover's Quarrel'', were engraved in ''The Literary Souvenir'' for 1826; the first with verses by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.
The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...
and the second with an accompanying unsigned story, later attributed to
Maria Jane Jewsbury
Maria Jane Jewsbury (later Maria Jane Fletcher; 25 October 1800 – 4 October 1833) was an English writer, poet and reviewer. Her ''Phantasmagoria (Jewsbury), Phantasmagoria'' of poetry and prose, ''Letters to the Young'' and ''The Three Histori ...
; this latter was in the Dover House collection, and, with ''The Adieu'' and another picture by Newton, was sold at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
on 6 May 1893. ''The Prince of Spain's Visit to Catalina'' (1827) was purchased by the
Duke of Bedford
Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...
and engraved in ''The Literary Souvenir'' for 1833.
Two pictures by Newton, ''Yorick and the Grisette'' (1830) and ''The Window or the Dutch Girl'' (1829), were purchased by Mr. Vernon and passed with his collection to the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
; a third, ''Portia and Bassanio'' (1831), forms part of the
Sheepshanks collection in the
South Kensington Museum
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...
. Newton painted numerous other pictures, which found immediate purchasers, and were nearly all engraved. Among them were: ''Lear, Cordelia, and the Physician'' (Lord Ashburton), ''Abbot Boniface'' (Earl of Essex), ''The Duenna'' (royal collection), and ''The Importunate Author''. He painted several portraits, including those of
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...
,
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
, and
Lady Theresa Lister. In 1842 a collection of engravings from his pictures was published with notices by
Henry Murray
Henry Alexander Murray (May 13, 1893 – June 23, 1988) was an American psychologist at Harvard University, where from 1959 to 1962 he conducted a series of psychologically damaging and purposefully abusive experiments on minors and underg ...
, F.S.A., entitled ''The Gems of Stuart Newton, R.A''. A portrait of his mother, Anne Stuart Newton, resides at the
Berkshire Museum
__NOTOC__
The Berkshire Museum is a museum of art, natural history, and ancient civilization that is located in Pittsfield in Berkshire County, Massachusetts ( United States).
History
The Berkshire Museum, founded by local paper magnate Zenas ...
in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfieldâ ...
.
Literary connections
Newton's picture of ''A Girl at her Devotions'' is twice poetically examined by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.
The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...
, firstly in her ''Poetical Catalogue of Pictures'' in The Literary Gazette, 1823, as , and again in her ''Poetical Sketches of Modern Pictures'' in The Troubadour (1826), as . A similar rendition of his painting ''The Disconsolate'' appeared in the Literary Gazette, 1829, with her poem
In addition to the pictures illustrated by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.
The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...
in The Literary Souvenir mentioned above, she wrote a further poetic illustration to ' (with an engraving by
Charles Rolls
Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with ...
) in The Amulet, 1833.
In conjunction with the painting above of ''The Prince of Spain's Visit to Catalina'' is a poem by
Felicia Hemans
Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic statu ...
,
References
;Attribution
External links
* a poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon in The Literary Souvenir, 1826, together with an engraving of the painting.
*
Newton on ArtcyclopediaAcadiensis* The painting , engraved by
Charles Heath
Charles Theodosius Heath (1 March 1785 – 18 November 1848) was a British engraver, currency and stamp printer, book publisher and illustrator.
Life and career
He was the illegitimate son of James Heath, a successful engraver who enjoyed ...
for The Literary Souvenir annual, 1826, with illustrative verse by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.
The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...
* The painting , engraved by
Charles Rolls
Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with ...
for The Literary Souvenir annual, 1833, with the poem ''On a Picture Representing an Italian Contadina and her Family'' by
Felicia Hemans
Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic statu ...
.
* The painting , engraved by S. Sangster, with a poetical illustration by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L.
The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...
for The Literary Souvenir annual, 1835.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Gilbert Stuart
1797 births
1835 deaths
19th-century British painters
British male painters
People from the Halifax Regional Municipality
British people of Scottish descent
Royal Academicians
19th-century British male artists