Stuart, while domiciled with West, drew in the schools of the Royal Academy, attended the lectures of the distinguished William Cruikshank on anatomy, and listened to the discourses delivered by Sir Joshua Reynolds on painting. Later on he painted the portraits of each of these celebrated men, and did enough individual work to indicate the quality of the artistic stuff that was in him, awaiting an opportunity to manifest itself. In 1777, the year Stuart went to West, he made his first exhibition at the Royal Academy. His one contribution is entered in the catalogue of that year merely as “A Portrait.” It is not improbable that this was a portrait of his fellow countryman and early friend, Benjamin Waterhouse, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who preceded Stuart to London only a short time, and who seems to have remained the artist’s chum during their sojourn in the English capital. A portrait of Doctor Waterhouse, by Stuart, was given by the Doctor’s widow, to the Redwood library, at Newport, together with Stuart’s self-portrait, wearing a large hat, and dated on the back, 1778. These two portraits are evidently of a contemporaneous period. In 1779 Stuart exhibited, at the Royal Academy, three pictures: “A Young Gentleman,” “A Little Girl,” and “A Head.” In 1781 he showed “A Portrait from Recollection since Death,” and in 1782 made his last exhibition there, sending a “Portrait of an Artist,” and “A Portrait of a Gentleman Skating.” This last picture, although painted so early in his career, has been considered Stuart’s _chef-d’œuvre_. It is a whole-length portrait of Mr. William Grant, of Congalton, skating in St. James Park. Mr. Grant was the early friend who bore testimony to Stuart’s character, whereby Stuart gained the organist’s position soon after his arrival in London; and the story has come down that Mr. Grant, desiring to help Stuart, determined to sit for his portrait, and went to Stuart’s room for a sitting. The day was crisp and cold, and the conversation, not unnaturally, turned upon skating, a sport much enjoyed by both painter and sitter, each being rarely skilful at it. Finally paints and brushes were put away, and the two friends started forth to skate. Stuart was so struck with the beauty and rhythm of his companion’s motion that he determined to essay a picture of him thus engaged. The original canvas was abandoned and a new one begun, showing Mr. Grant not merely upon skates, but actually skating; and the latent force of the graceful undulating motion has been rendered with a skill and ability that at once put Stuart in the front rank of the great portrait-painters of his day.