first instruction from a Scotch painter at Newport, named Alexander, who was so much pleased with his talents and lively disposition, that he took him with him on his return to Scotland. His friend dying soon after, the youth found himself pennyless in a strange country, but undismayed, he resolved to return home, and found himself obliged to work his passage before the mast. He had already made considerable progress in art, and on his return commenced portrait painting, although without meeting much encouragement. He was in Boston at the time of the Battle of Lexington, but immediately left that city and went to New York, where he painted the portrait of his grandmother from memory, though she had been dead about ten years, which is said to have been a capital likeness, and gained him some business. About this time he painted his own portrait, the only one he ever took of himself, to the excellence of which his friend Dr. Waterhouse bears ample testimony. He says, "it was painted in his freest manner, and with a Rubens' hat," and in another place, that "Stuart in his best days, said he need not be ashamed of it."

STUART GOES TO LONDON.

Not meeting with any adequate encouragement, and the country being in a deplorable state, in the midst of the Revolution, Stuart set sail for London in 1778, at the age of twenty-two, to try his fortunes in that city. He was a wayward and eccentric

genius, proud as Lucifer withal; and on his arrival in that metropolis, he found himself full of poverty, enthusiasm, and hope,-often a painter's only capital. He expected to have found Waterhouse, who would have helped him with his advice, and purse if necessary, but he had gone to Edinburg. Instead of going directly to West, as he should have done, he wandered about the "dreary solitude" of London, as Johnson used to characterize the busy hum of that crowded city to the poverty-stricken sons of genius, till he had expended his last dollar.

STUART AN ORGANIST.

Stuart had a great taste for music, which he had cultivated, and was an accomplished musician. One day, as he was passing a church in Foster-Lane, hearing the sound of an organ, he stepped in, and ascertaining that the vestry were testing the candidates for the post of organist, he asked if he might try. Being told that he could, he did so, and succeeded in getting the place, with a salary of thirty guineas a year!

STUART'S INTRODUCTION TO WEST.

During all this time, for some unknown reason, Stuart never sought the acquaintance of West, but the moment that excellent man heard of the young painter and his circumstances, he immediately sent a messenger to him with money to relieve his necessities, and invited him to call at his studio. "Such

was Stuart's first introduction," says Dunlap, "to the man from whose instruction he derived the most important advantages from that time forward; whose character he always justly appreciated, but whose example he could not, or would not follow." Stuart himself says, " On application to West to receive me as a pupil, I was welcomed with true benevolence, encouraged and taken into the family, and nothing could exceed the attentions of the great artist to me they were paternal." He was twentyfour years old when he entered the studio of West. Before he left the roof of his benefactor and teacher, he painted a full-length portrait of him, which elicited general admiration. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and the young painter paid frequent visits to the exhibition rooms. It happened that one day, as he stood near the picture, surrounded by artists and students (for he had fine wit, and was an inimitable story-teller), West came in and joined the group. He praised the picture, and addressing himself to his pupil, said, “you have done well, Stuart, very well; now all you have to do is to go home and do better." Stuart always expressed the obligations he was under to that distinguished artist. When West saw that he was fitted for the field, prepared for and capable of contending wwith the best portrait painters, he advised him to commence his professional career, and pointed out to him the way to fame and fortune. But Stuart did not follow this wise counsel, preferring to indulge his

own wayward fancy. He had a noble, generous, and disinterested heart, but he was eccentric, improvident, and extravagant, and consequently he was always in necessitous circumstances.

STUART AND WEST.

"I used often to provoke my good old master," said Stuart to Dunlap, "though, heaven knows, without intending it. You remember the color closet at the bottom of his painting-room. One day, Trumbull and I came into his room, and little suspecting that he was within hearing, I began to lecture on his pictures, and particularly upon one then on his easel. I was a giddy, foolish fellow then. He had begun a portrait of a child, and he had a way of making curly hair by a flourish of his brush, thus, like a figure of three. "Here, Trumbull," said I, "do you want to learn how to paint hair ? There it is, my boy! Our master figures out a head of hair like a sum in arithmetic. Let us see-we may tell how many guineas he is to have for this head by simple addition,-three and three make six, and three are nine, and three are twelve-" How much the sum would have amounted to, I can't tell, for just then in stalked the master, with palette-knife and palette, and put to flight my calculations. "Very well, Mr. Stuart"-he always mistered me when he was angry, as a man's wife calls him my dear, when she wishes him to the d- -1,—“ Very well, Mr. Stuart! very well indeed!"

You may

believe that I looked foolish enough, and he gave me a pretty sharp lecture, without my making any reply. But when the head was finished, there were no figures of three in the hair."

"Mr. West," says Stuart, "treated me very cavalierly on one occasion; but I had my revenge. My old master, who was always called upon to paint a portrait of his majesty for every governor-general sent out to India, received an order for one for Lord He was busily employed upon one of his tenacre pictures, in company with prophets and apostles, and thought he could turn over the king to me. He could never paint a portrait.

"Stuart,' said he, it is a pity to make his majesty sit again for his picture; there is the portrait of him that you painted; let me have it for Lord I will retouch it, and it will do well enough.' 'Well enough! very pretty,' thought I; 'you might be civil, when you ask a favor.' So I thought; but I said, 'Very well, sir.' So the picture was carried down to his room, and at it he went. I saw he was puzzled. He worked at it all that day. The next morning, Stuart,' says he, 'have you got your palette set ?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Well, you can soon set another; let me have it; I can't satisfy myself with that head.'

"I gave him my palette, and he worked the greater part of that day. In the afternoon I went into his room, and he was hard at it. I saw that he had got up to the knees in mud. 'Stuart,' says he, 'I