New York City was Stuart's chosen point of return to America; the tale that he sailed from Dublin to New York to avoid the circus on the boat to Philadelphia may be a tall one. Although as usual his plans were based more on chance than on organization, he would have counted on certain things: New York was full of prominent people, and it was void of fine portraitists. The city had emerged from the Revolution with financial strength, celebrity statesmen, and a wealthy contingent of European immigrants. Recognized as the provisional national capital since 1785, New York was becoming a cosmopolitan city with a courtly system of entertainments that were slowly but surely supplanting old Dutch ways of life. The city was described by the Boston Gazette as "a vortex of folly and dissipation." In short, it fulfilled the criteria for a successful portrait practice.

With experience in the politically fermenting atmospheres of London and Dublin, Stuart had no trouble balancing commissions from New York's old landed aristocracy and the new merchant elite. He came to know many residents, although he would later say that he arrived destitute of acquaintances with the exception of Chief Justice John Jay, whom he had painted in London in 1784. While Jay was important to Stuart's business, Stuart was beyond needing to rely on any single person for his professional advancement.

In New York, Stuart formulated a style of painting that combined the fluidity of his best English pictures with the specificity of his Irish work, a brilliant mix. He allowed his studio to become a retreat for his sitters. He painted "for their gratification; and gave present éclat and a short-lived immortality in exchange for a portion of their wealth," wrote the critic William Dunlap. And then in November 1794, he left for Philadelphia and the commission of a lifetime.


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