James W Tottis

Sweet Life

Stewart's paintings are highly engaging and attractive, covering a broad cross-section of later nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American Expat Parisian high society, its genteel past-times, and travel, in a style of painting that was uniquely his own, and that was lauded in both Europe and America. This new volume presents over seventy major paintings, pastels and drawings across thematic sections, with a new introduction to Stewart's life, career, and world through essays by major specialists on nineteenth and early twentieth century American art and history. The authors look variously at Stewart's early career and training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, his later tutelage under French and Spanish masters, Eduardo Zamacois, Jean-Leon Gerome, and Raimundo Madrazo, his family's involvement in the production of sugar; then the world of the American Expat society in which Stewart circulated, and the evolution Stewart's later style, in the mid 1880s towards multi-figured, narrative scenes of his family, friends and meticulous depictions of their costumes; then for a brief period later the sensuous Arcadian nudes bathed in sunlight, celebrating the attributes of Diana and the Bachenates. Collectively these provide the first major exploration of Stewart's world and work with, new contribution to our understanding of the importance and legacy of his art, and his advocation for his community of fellow American artists in France.