James Monroe

Artist:: Gilbert Stuart (American, North Kingston, Rhode Island 1755–1828 Boston, Massachusetts)

Date:: ca. 1820–22

Medium:: Oil on canvas

Dimensions:: 40 1/4 x 32 in. (102.2 x 81.3 cm)

Classification:: Paintings

Credit Line:: Bequest of Seth Low, 1916

Accession Number:: 29.89

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774

The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, was a Virginian who enjoyed the advantages of being the disciple and political protégé of Thomas Jefferson. Before becoming president, he had held many diplomatic posts, including service as ambassador to France and to England. The year after this picture was completed, he issued the famous Monroe Doctrine, a statement against any intervention from foreign governments in the affairs of the hemisphere. The three-quarter pose at a desk with books and papers, the billowing drapery, and the liberal use of strong, pure red are all elements of a formula that Stuart, like the Spanish Goya, frequently employed in portraits of statesman.

John Doggett, Boston, 1820–1839; Abel Phillips, Boston, by 1839; Honorable Peter A. Porter, Niagara Falls, New York, 1851–1856; A. B. Douglas, Brooklyn, until 1857; Abiel Abbot Low, Brooklyn, 1857–died 1893; his son, Abiel Augustus Low, Brooklyn; his wife, Mrs. A. Augustus Low; sold to brother-in-law, Seth Low, Brooklyn and Bedford Hills, New York, died 1916; his wife, Mrs. Seth Low, subject to a life estate, died 1929

Essays
Students of Benjamin West (1738-1820)

Timelines
The United States and Canada, 1800-1900 A.D.

Nineteenth-Century America: Paintings and Sculpture
Masterpieces of American Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gilbert Stuart
American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815
American Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, Painters Born by 1815