NEW YORK.- Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), the most successful and resourceful portraitist of America's early national period, is best remembered today for his many incisive likenesses of George Washington. This fall, in the artist's first retrospective in nearly four decades, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will show nearly 100 exceptional works that reveal his talent for capturing both the appearance and the character of his many prominent clients. Representing all periods of Stuart's long career and featuring works drawn from private collections and museums in America and Britain, Gilbert Stuart just opened.

A highlight of the exhibition will be the display in a single room of 14 of Stuart's Washington portraits, including the original "Vaughan" likeness (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), the unfinished "Athenaeum" version (co-owned by the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and the celebrated "Lansdowne" portrait of 1796, recently acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition is made possible by The Henry Luce Foundation and The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation. The George Washington Gallery is made possible by First American Funds and U.S. Bank. The Washington, D.C., venue of the exhibition is made possible by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The exhibition has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

The chronological arrangement of the exhibition follows Stuart's career from its start in his hometown of Newport, Rhode Island, to its end some five decades later in Boston, Massachusetts. Within the display, a gallery will be devoted to works painted in each of the seven cities � Newport, London, Dublin, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston � in which the artist practiced his trade and attracted a clientele. In each location, the conditions for being a portrait painter differed, and Stuart faced varying expectations and demands because of his own growing reputation, his ambitions, and competing painters.

The son of a Scottish emigr� who settled near Newport, Rhode Island, Gilbert Stuart demonstrated a precocious artistic talent coupled with an irreverent manner and somewhat rebellious spirit. He honed his skills on a trip to Edinburgh in 1772-73 and a visit to Boston in 1774, and, upon his return to Newport, attracted the local elite, many of them business associates of his father. The first signs of his technical skill are apparent in relatively primitive works fashioned according to the model of contemporary Scottish portraiture, such as the ambitious 1774 double portrait of Francis Malbone and his brother Saunders, painted when the artist was not yet 20 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). His portrait of his close friend, Benjamin Waterhouse (Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport) from the next year shows vast improvement, and this accomplishment led him to seek more training abroad.

In 1777, Stuart traveled to London to seek his fortune. He soon secured a position as an assistant to another American who had relocated to London � the renowned artist Benjamin West (1738-1820), historical painter to King George III. Stuart benefited greatly from this relationship and, with the 1782 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts of his boldly original and highly acclaimed full-length portrait The Skater (William Grant of Congalton) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), the young American became one of the most sought-after painters in Britain. He was also on good terms with the Academy's president, Sir Joshua Reynolds (portrait on loan from National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), who recommended Stuart for many jobs, and the print seller John Boydell, who, in 1785, ordered from Stuart 15 portraits of contemporary artists, six of which will be shown in the exhibition.

After a decade in London, Stuart's reputation grew along with his debts. To escape his creditors, he moved to the comparatively small city of Dublin, executing grand commissions with little competition, and continuing to master the techniques of Grand Manner portraiture. Among his most important works from the period is the 1789 portrait of the newly appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Fitzgibbon (The Cleveland Museum of Art), whose aloof and regal pose Stuart would find useful later in his career. His Irish clients � who received him as a British painter, and commissioned paintings on the grand scale they expected from one trained in London � may have been surprised to learn of Stuart's American roots when he spoke of returning to his native soil to paint the new president of the United States.

In 1793, the artist sailed for New York, where he would make the proper connections to gain a sitting with President George Washington. He received numerous commissions, which he completed with great speed and skill, proving himself worthy of painting the leader of country. Among his distinguished clients were Josef de J�udenes y Nebot, the Spanish charg� d'affaires to the United States, and his new bride Matilda Stoughton de J�udenes, the daughter of the wealthy American diplomat John Stoughton, both of whose highly ornamented portraits he painted in 1794 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Ultimately, through his friend, the diplomat John Jay � whose portrait he also painted (private collection) � the necessary introductions were made and, assured of sittings with George Washington, Stuart moved to Philadelphia � at that time, the nation's capital.

Stuart was granted three sittings with Washington in 1795-96, bringing the skills honed in Britain to bear on his work. In these paintings, he satisfied the need in America for lasting images of its early national leaders created in an international language of portraiture. Stuart created three portrait types for the president: a bust-length facing left (the so-called Vaughan image), another facing right (the Athenaeum version) and a full-length composition (the Lansdowne). The exhibition brings together several of each type, including four full-lengths. These grand paintings have never before been seen side by side. The display will engage viewers by showing the variations in Stuart's signature work, which Stuart continued to replicate for the next 30 years, and will explain the genesis of the portrait that most know so well as the face on the United States one-dollar bill.

Stuart lived in Philadelphia until 1803, and, in addition to working with Washington, painted many of the city's elite. A tour-de-force, from around 1802, shows Mrs. Perez Morton (Worcester Art Museum), the so-called American Sappho, a poetess and great beauty who inspired one of Stuart's most captivating works. He followed the government to Washington, D.C., where he continued to paint the country's leaders. A number of his sitters came from the diplomatic corps, among them Jerome Bonaparte and his stunning wife, Elizabeth Patterson, painted just after their marriage (both, private collections). Stuart's career spanned the terms of the first five presidents and, while in Washington, he received sittings with John and Abigail Adams � pictures that consumed him for more than a decade as he pondered how to best portray this captivating couple � and with Thomas Jefferson, the handsome and intelligent third president. Stuart also painted James Monroe (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) as well as James Madison (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation) and First Lady Dolley Madison (The White House) � a pair of pictures that will be shown together in the exhibition for the first time in more than a century.

Stuart spent his last two decades in Boston, where patrons admired his work, despite unpredictable delays and crankiness, which increased in Stuart's old age. The work never decreased in expression or skill. His portrait of retired general Henry Knox (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) was a