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We hope that many Georgetown alumni in the New York area were
able to enjoy the "visit" from a familiar Georgetown face: the
Portrait of Archbishop John Carroll by Gilbert Stuart.
This landmark painting--one of the masterworks from the Georgetown
University Art Collection--has been included in the acclaimed
exhibition Gilbert Stuart, which was on view at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art from October 2004 to January 2005.
Several Georgetown
alumni and friends took a tour of the exhibition with Associates
Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture Carrie Rebora Barratt,
who generously shared her time and expertise for the Friday evening
event in January.
Dr. Barratt recalled that when she first saw Archbishop John
Carroll, "It took my breath away." Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
was the most distinguished portraitist of the "Federal Period"
in the early United States, and this exhibition reveals his many
accomplishments, first as an acclaimed painter in the British
Isles, and later when he returned to his native America to paint
the wealthy and powerful in the newly independent nation. (One
of his many famous depictions of George Washington was adapted
for the image on U.S. paper currency.)
The 1804 Portrait of Archbishop John Carroll does not
have "a persnickety attention to detail" compared to many earlier
Stuart
paintings, explained curator Barratt, who enthused that the portrait
is "absolutely divine." She said that it was important to include,
amidst the politically and socially prominent subjects, a painting
of a clergyman. "The exhibition also includes Jesuit Bishop Cheverus
of Boston and Episcopal Rector William Smith when he was Provost
at the University of Pennsylvania."
Portrait of Archbishop John Carroll was painted during the years
that Stuart resided in Washignton. Several of those paintings
are reunited in the nationa's capital, where the Gilbert Stuart
exhibition is on view at the National Gallery of Art until July.
Since Portrait of Archbishop John Carroll usually hangs in the
Office of the Unversity President, this will be a rare opportunity
for the public to see and admire the Art Collection's signature
piece.
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