Julius LeBlanc Stewart (September 6, 1855, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — January 4, 1919, Paris, France), was an American artist who spent his career in Paris. A contemporary of fellow expatriate painter John Singer Sargent, Stewart was nicknamed "the Parisian from Philadelphia".D. Dodge Thompson, "Julius L. Stewart, a 'Parisian from Philadelphia'", The Magazine Antiques (November 1986), pp. 1046-58.
Biography His father, the sugar millionaire William Hood Stewart, moved the family from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Paris in 1865, and became a distinguished art collector and an early patron of Marià Fortuny and the Barbizon artists. Julius studied under Eduardo Zamacois as a teenager, under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts, and later was a pupil of Raymondo de Madrazo.
Stewart's family wealth enabled him to live a lush expatriate life and paint what he pleased, often large-scaled group portraits. The first of these, After the Wedding (Drexel University Art Collection, 1880), showed Charles Stewart (no relationCharles T. Stewart was the son of Mrs. Mackintosh Stewart. See 1885 p.2) and his bride Mae, daughter of financier Anthony J. Drexel, leaving for their honeymoon. Subsequent group portraits depicted his friends — including actresses, celebrities and aristocrats — often with a self-portrait somewhere in the crowd.
He exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon from 1878 into the early 20th century, and helped organize the "Americans in Paris" section of the 1894 Salon. The Baptism (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1892), which reportedly depicts a gathering of the Vanderbilt family, was shown at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, and received acclaim at the 1895 Berlin International Exposition.
He painted a series of sailing pictures aboard James Gordon Bennett, Jr.'s yacht Namouna. The most accomplished of these, On the Yacht "Namouna", Venice (Wadsworth Atheneum, 1890), showed a sailing party on deck and included a portrait of the actress Lillie Langtry. Another, Yachting on the Mediterranean (1896), set a record price for the artist, selling in 2005 for US$2.3 million.
Late in life, he turned to painting outdoor nudes and Venetian scenes, but Stewart is best remembered for his Belle Époque society portraits.
Selected works
Horse Trough on a Cuban Plantation (1876), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania After the Wedding (aka Parisian Wedding) (1880), Drexel University Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Five O'Clock Tea (1884), Iris & B. Gerald Cantor collection, New York City The Hunt Ball (1885), Essex Club, Newark, New Jersey. Includes portraits of the actress Lillie Langtry and Baron Rothschild. On the Yacht "Namouna", Venice (1890), Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut The Baptism (1892), Los Angeles County Museum of Art Reportedly, this shows a gathering of the Vanderbilt family. Yachting on the Mediterranean (1896), private collection The Goldsmith Ladies ... in a Peugeot (1897), Musée du Château de Compiègne, France La Clairiere (The Glade) (1900), Detroit Institute of Arts Les Nymphes de Nysa (The Nymphs of Nysa) (1900), Musée d'Orsay, Paris Portrait of Mrs. Francis Stanton Blake (1908), Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
References Ulrich W. Hiesinger, Julius LeBlanc Stewart, American Painter of the Belle Epoque, exhibition catalogue, Vance Jordan Fine Art, Inc. (New York 1998)
External links
Spring Flowers (In the Conservatory) (1890), Phoenix Art Museum Julius Leblanc Stewart Works list