GILBERT STUART was born in Narragansett, R.I., in 1755, and died in Boston in 1828. He was of Scotch descent, and it has already been mentioned that Cosmo Alexander, a Scotchman, was his first teacher. After several visits to Europe, during the second of which he studied under West, Stuart finally returned in 1793, and began the painting of the series of national portraits which will for ever endear him to the patriotic American. Among these his several renderings of Washington, of which there are many copies by his own hand, are the most celebrated. The greatest popularity is perhaps enjoyed by the so-called Athenaeum head, which, with its pendant, the portrait of _Mrs. Washington_, is the property of the Athenaeum of Boston, and by that institution has been deposited in the Museum of Fine Arts of the same city. The claim to superiority is, however, contested by the _Gibbs Washington_, at present also to be seen in the museum alluded to. It was painted before the other, and gives the impression of more realistic truthfulness, while the Athenaeum head seems to be somewhat idealized. Stuart's work is quite unequal, as he was not a strict economist, and often painted for money only. But in his best productions there is a truly admirable purity and wealth of colour, added to a power of characterization, which lifts portraiture into the highest sphere of art. It must be said, however, that he concentrated his attention almost entirely upon the head, often slighting the arms and hands, especially of his female sitters, to an unpleasant degree. Many excellent specimens of his work, besides the Washington portraits, are to be found in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston and in the collection of the New York Historical Society, the latter including the fine portrait of _Egbert Benson_, painted in 1807. His _chef-d'oeuvre_ is the portrait of _Judge Stephen Jones_, owned by Mr. F. G. Richards, of Boston, a remarkably vigorous head of an old man, warm and glowing in colour, which, it is said, the artist painted for his own satisfaction. Stuart's most celebrated work in England is _Mr. Grant skating_. When this portrait was exhibited as a work by Gainsborough, at the "Old Masters," in 1878, its pedigree having been forgotten, it was in turn attributed to all the great English portrait-painters, until it was finally restored to its true author. [Illustration: DEATH OF MONTGOMERY IN THE ATTACK OF QUEBEC. _By_ J. TRUMBULL. _At Yale College._ _Copyright_, 1879, _by Harper and Brothers_.]