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You’ve probably seen Gilbert Stuart’s work and not even realized it. One of his paintings of George Washington served as the basis for the president’s portrait on the dollar bill. That iconic image is just one of many that Stuart made of early leaders in the United States. But it may be that none of those paintings would have been possible if it hadn’t been for The Skater. According to Stuart, the painting “suddenly lifted [him] into fame.”
By painting a full-length portrait of Scottish lawyer William Grant in motion, enjoying a modern activity, Stuart pushed society portraiture in a new direction. Grand manner portraits, which were popular at the time, did show subjects at full length and in life size. But the artists placed their subjects in settings and with accessories that communicated status and character. They commonly stood or sat in static poses inspired by Italian Renaissance paintings or classical sculptures. A few portraits did depict people actually doing something, like Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers. But they too were usually making those same classical references.
Stuart’s standout painting wasn’t just a product of his artistic skills. It also came out of both the subject’s and the artist’s love of skating. How did Stuart come to paint this unconventional portrait? And what does it tell us about skating in 18th-century England?
Gilbert Stuart, The Skater (Portrait of William Grant), 1782, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1950.18.1
A Day for Skating
When he made The Skater in 1782, the 27-year-old Stuart was in London, working as an assistant to painter Benjamin West, a fellow American expatriate. When he wasn’t helping West create monumental history paintings, Stuart took on portrait commissions.
According to the vivid (if exaggerated) story, Grant arrived for a sitting with Stuart but observed that the winter day would be better spent skating. Cold weather was rare in London at the time, and the low temperatures made for safer skating on one of the city’s frozen ponds. Stuart, a practiced skater, agreed. And so the two abandoned their plans and set out for the Serpentine, a lake in Hyde Park. In his telling, Stuart claimed that crowds gathered to watch him skate. He realized that he was the more experienced skater, having grown up skating in his native Rhode Island.
They soon realized that the ice wasn’t fully frozen when it began to crack. Stuart told Grant to grab onto his coattails and follow him off the lake. Once the two returned to Stuart’s studio, the artist had a spark of inspiration. Why not paint Grant as he had just seen him, skating?
Despite his experience skating with Grant, Stuart shows him as a confident skater. He glides into the center of the work dressed in an elegant outfit of a jacket with grey fur lapels and a matching vest, pants, and stockings. He wears state-of-the-art skates with black straps that attach iron blades with curled toes to his shoes. He is balanced on his left foot, and the mark on the ice that trails behind him curves towards us. He looks off to the side with a subtle smile. Grant crosses his arms across his chest. If you’ve ever skated, you know that the pose suggests an advanced skill—beginners would have their arms stretched out at their sides for balance.
The black straps criss-crossing the top of the foot attach the blades to the skater's shoes.
Men skate the "Serpentine Greeting" in the background of The Skater. The twin towers in the distance are part of Westminster Abbey.
Stuart Capitalizes on His Skater
We can’t be sure how much of the origin story of The Skater is true, but it was a sensation at the Royal Academy annual exhibition in 1782. London’s art crowd appreciated the portrait for its innovative pose. One biography, which Stuart’s daughter commissioned and contributed to, notes that he was “afraid to go to the Royal Academy to meet the looks and answer the inquiries of the multitude.” Apparently, the painting became so well known that William Grant was mobbed when he wore the same outfit to the exhibition.
There were also two other portraits with active subjects in the exhibition that year. Newspapers and art journals reported previews of what major artists were working on. So Stuart may have caught wind of Joseph Wright’s Two Young Gentleman in the Characters of Archers or Thomas Gainsborough’s Giovanna Baccelli and felt the need to keep up. Or it could have been a complete coincidence, a result of three painters all exploring how to innovate grand manner portraits.
The Skater helped catapult Stuart from West’s student to a painter in his own right. He soon got his own studio and received a steady stream of commissions. He started charging hefty prices similar to the premier portraitists in London at the time—royal painters Gainsborough and Reynolds. Eventually Stuart left London for Dublin, Ireland. He later returned to the United States and established himself as the most important portraitist of the young nation.
Julius Caesar Ibbetson, Skaters on the Serpentine in Hyde Park, 1786, pen and black ink and watercolor on laid paper; laid down, Gift of Paul Mellon, 1987.82.1
Skating in 18th-Century London
Stuart painted Grant in a winter setting. A leafless tree stands on the bank of the river to the right, and a grey sky stretches above. In the distance, the artist included the twin towers of Westminster Abbey. Another structure might be the Cheesecake House, a sort of refreshment stand that offered syllabubs (a British dessert of spiked cream mousse) and cheesecake slices.
This view situates Grant on the Serpentine. But Stuart didn’t paint him there only as a reminder of their time skating on the lake. Like most things in British society at the time, skating had a social hierarchy, and each of London’s skating spots had a reputation. The canal in Saint James Park was for all classes, the Serpentine was considered more refined, and Kensington Gardens was for gentlemen.
While skating was not yet considered a sport at the time, skaters did have common tricks. The two behind Grant are performing the “Serpentine Greeting.” This popular move may have been introduced to London by none other than Stuart’s teacher, Benjamin West. The Pennsylvania-born painter was reportedly famous for his skating skills. A 19th-century biography claimed that West would draw crowds when skating at Kensington Gardens. (According to Olympic champion skater and skating scholar Dick Button, the Serpentine Greeting was also called the Philadelphia or Pennsylvania Greeting.)
West and Stuart may have gotten so much attention because of their American style of skating—each country had its own. For example, the Scots were considered more elegant, while the English more agile. With his assured stride, Grant seems to embody the Scottish style.
The Skater remained across the Atlantic. It was passed down to generations of Grant’s descendants, but its association with Stuart was lost within a century. When it was displayed again at the Royal Academy in 1878, it was thought to be by Gainsborough. Eventually its authorship was rediscovered along with the legend of its creation.