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The Scottish-born Alexander Charles Stuart was an accomplished ship portrait and marine painter who worked primarily in navy yards and shipyards along the Delaware River, as well as in Washington, Philadelphia and New York. In an 1896 account of his life, Stuart recorded that he had grown up in Glasgow, then a major shipbuilding city, and studied engineering and medicine before serving with the English army in the Crimean War (1853-56) and Indian Mutiny (1857-60). He immigrated to Chester, Pennsylvania, around 1861. Upon his arrival in America, Stuart first served in the marines and then joined the Union navy, when he began to create ship paintings and watercolors.
Stuart became United States citizen after resigning from the navy in 1866. Thereafter, he worked primarily as an artist and illustrator for the merchant shipbuilding companies of John Roach & Son in Chester from 1872 to 1880 and Harlan & Hollingsworth, in Wilmington, Delaware from 1877 to the late 1880s. During this time, he became well known for documenting many of the early iron steamships built by these firms in the latter nineteenth century.
Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston
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(1831-1898) Alexander Charles Stuart, born in Glasgow, is best known for his ship portraits, often signed only with his surname or monogram, a conjoined "S" and anchor. He was educated at the Royal School at Rugby, was apprenticed to a machinist and went on to study medicine. As a member of the Royal Navy he served in the Crimean War and in Australia and India. The New York City census of 1860 lists him and his family as residents. He was a member of the Union Navy from 1863 until 1866, and served on the famed "iron ship," the Monitor. Stuart seems to have spent the years following his resignation from the Navy in the Delaware River region - Philadelphia, Camden, Chester, Wilmington. He worked for shipbuilders Harlan and Hollingsworth, and is listed in Wilmington city directories from 1881 to 1892 as a marine artist. His works are in many prominent museum collections, including that of the Peabody, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Mariners' Museum.the Office of Naval Records, the U.S. Marine Corps Museum, and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Biography courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, www.antiquesandfineart.com/rking
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