Copyright by Amy Elizabeth Shoultz 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Amy Elizabeth Shoultz certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: A Revolutionary Idea: Gilbert Stuart Paints Sarah Morton as the First Woman of Ideas in American Art Committee: ______________________________ Susan Rather, Supervisor ______________________________ Jeffrey Meikle, Co-Supervisor ______________________________ Elizabeth Engelhardt ______________________________ Mark C. Smith ______________________________ Stephen H. Marshall A Revolutionary Idea: Gilbert Stuart Paints Sarah Morton as the First Woman of Ideas in American Art by Amy Elizabeth Shoultz, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2008 Acknowledgements This dissertation was inspired by one provocative painting of a forgotten author from republican Boston. I will never forget—and owe profound thanks—to the many colleagues, family members, and friends who enabled me to complete this seemingly endless enterprise. I happened upon Gilbert Stuart’s Worcester portrait of Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton at the casual suggestion of Susan Rather of the Art History Department, who has since become both mentor and friend. Without the support and encouragement of her and Jeffrey Meikle in American Studies, I am certain that I would have abandoned this project many years ago. Both Drs. Meikle and Rather have been inordinately generous with their time and wisdom and I will always be grateful for that. In addition, they have both exemplified a model of humanity in scholarship to which I will always aspire. Thank you also to American Studies professors, Elizabeth Engelhardt, Mark C. Smith, and Stephen H. Marshall—all of whom consented to serve on my committee at the eleventh hour, offering both their time and sound critical judgments. Next I must thank my parents who I love more and more each year, Charles and Shirley Shoultz, for their endurance, patience and constant belief in my abilities no matter how impossible my endeavors seemed—and, of course, for their support both emotional and (regrettably) financial. My mother, particularly, has always believed in me more than I believed in myself. To my sister Katy, I love you and so appreciate all that you did to make this difficult process easier for me, including driving me to the emergency room when I iv swallowed a bone the night before a major deadline. I owe special thanks to my friend and colleague, Sue Coffman, whose advice and editorial restraint greatly improved my meandering prose; to Kathy Wheeler who appeared—angel-like—out of nowhere to rescue me from my technological folly; and, to Ella Schwarz in the American Studies office who went to great lengths to make sure none of my deadlines were missed. David Lawson deserves extra-special recognition for his unfailing dedication to my cause—no matter the hour or the expense. I could always count on David to race over at a moment’s notice to retrieve lost computer files, to drive me to the Fed-Ex store at ridiculous hours, or simply talk me out of ending it all. My gratitude to him knows no bounds. To Molly Kemp and Steve Lawrence, thank you for providing much-needed comic relief but also for making me believe, if only for a moment, that I was at least as smart as anyone else who’d ever gotten a PhD. Lastly, I want Maryann Prewitt to know how invaluable she has become to me as my medical doctor but, more importantly, as my confidante and as a constant source of inspiration. I think we can all agree that the completion of this dissertation is reason to celebrate—so I celebrate all of you, as well, and insist upon being addressed by my new title in the future. v A Revolutionary Idea: Gilbert Stuart Paints Sarah Morton as the First Woman of Ideas in American Art Amy Elizabeth Shoultz, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2008 Supervisor: Susan Rather In 1800, Gilbert Stuart began three paintings of his friend, republican writer, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton—the Worcester, Winterthur, and Boston portraits. While Morton has been remembered more for a tragic personal family scandal than for her literary endeavors, Stuart’s provocative images acknowledged her as both a poet and an intellect. His portraits presented a progressive and potentially controversial interpretation of his sitter —the lovely and learned Morton—by prioritizing the writer’s life of the mind rather than her socially prescribed life in the world. This study reconstructs the circumstances by which Stuart composed the group of Morton paintings that culminate in his unorthodox Worcester rendering through which he ultimately depicted Morton as the first woman of ideas in American art. Supported by close readings of her work, this dissertation illuminates both the course and depth of the exceptional personal and professional relationship between Morton and Stuart. The paths of the two republican figures crossed at several historic junctures and is highlighted by the interconnectivity of their work. Most significantly, the Stuart portraits represent an ideal lens through which to view Morton’s vi life and work as well as to follow the Boston native’s transformation into one of America’s earliest women of ideas. Table of Contents A Revolutionary Idea: Gilbert Stuart Paints Sarah Morton as a Woman of Ideas 1 Introduction 1 Chapter One: Her Mind and Its Thoughts: The Many Veils of Mrs. Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton 23 In Pursuit of a Name: Morton’s Early Life as Simply Sarah Apthorp 28 Putting a Face to a Name: Framing Morton’s History Through American Portraiture 32 Educating Sarah: The Accomplishments of Sarah Wentworth Apthorp 35 Return to Apthorp Mansion: Pomp, Circumstance, and the Man with “Soul-illumined Eyes” 41 The Quarrel over “Constantia”: Pseudonyms and Identity in American Manuscript Culture 45 Strains of Discord at Home—“Luxury, Vanity, Foppery” at Large 48 The Fatal Consequences of Seduction: “Guilty Innocence,” “Black Ingratitude,” and Blemished Virtue 54 Finis for Fanny” “Self-Murder” and an “Insane State of Mind” in Republican Boston 59 The Dubious Legacy of The Power of Sympathy: Mistaken Identify And Morton’s “Solitary Self,” Founded in Truth 63 Philenia Strikes Back: Ouâbi, A Literary Riposte to The Power of Sympathy 67 Salons American Style: Morton’s “Sky Parlor” and the Pseudo-Public Sphere 71 vii Chapter Two: Keeping Up Appearances: The Public Face, the Printed Word, and The Spectacle of the Private 75 Reputation and the Word: Republican Virtue on Parade and in Print 82 Slander-Loving Readers and the Sans Souci: Chronicling the Bon Temps of Boston’s Beau Monde 89 What News?: Literacy and Cultural Transformation in the Republic of Readers 95 Printing the Public: Making the News and the Newsworthy Subject 104 Pressing Concerns: Vehicles of Knowledge or Vehicles for Self-promotion 107 Republic Readership: Audience Participation and the Myth of the Private Sphere 111 Sentimental Journey: “Overstimulation,” the Coeur Sensible, and American Sensibility 116 Sheltered Women and Sensible Readers: Sympathy and American Character 122 Republic of Letters or a Republic of “Scandal-Mongers”?: Crime Reportage and the “Propensity to Scandal” 126 Chapter Three: Women in the Republican Eye: Sarah Morton and Boston’s Public Sphere 130 The Perils of Overexposure: High-Profile Women and Natural Feminine Modesty 135 “Home is the Mother’s Province”: Morton’s Self-Determination and the Rhetoric of American Domesticity 139 “Unmeaning Applause” and “Tickling the Idle Ear”: The Interior Designs of the Accomplished Woman 148 Women in Print: American Identify and Feminizing the Public Sphere 152 Chapter Four: Revolutionary Liaisons and Strategic Alliances: Morton’s Public viii Relations and the Making of an American Woman of Ideas 158 Strategic Alliances: Public Men and the Reinvention of Morton 162 A Triangular Affair: The Morton, Dunn, and Stuart Connection 168 Revolutionary Liaison: The “Goddess of Revenge” and the “Great Lover with a Wooden Leg” 172 “Monsieur was cordial . all things considered”: The Rise and Progress of an American Salonniere 176 Chapter Five: Lifting the Veil on the Enigmatic Mrs. M.: Gilbert Stuart’s Revolutionary Portrait of an American Woman of Ideas 182 Lost in Translation: West, Stuart, and the Grand Manner in American Art 185 The Worthy Subject: Gender and Eighteenth-Century Portraiture 192 Reading Women: Portraiture and the Literate Woman 196 Face Fetish: The Preeminence of Portraiture in Stuart’s Boston 197 Self-Interest vs. “Disinterest”: Commerce, Virtue, and Portraiture as Public Relations 201 “Upon Stuart’s Easel”: The Three Faces of Sarah Morton and a Question of Order 208 Knowing One’s Audience: The Boston Portrait of Mrs. M 214 A Study in Scandal: The Winterthur Portrait of Mrs. M 219 “The Lines of Reason,”: “The Lines of Grace”: The Worcester Portrait of an American Woman of Ideas 225 Conclusion: Who’s Musing Whom?: The Sister Arts of Poetry and Painting in the Work of Morton and Stuart 234 Works Cited 241 ix A Revolutionary Idea: Gilbert Stuart Paints Sarah Morton as a Woman of Ideas Introduction E’en me, by thy enlivening grace array’d, Me, born to linger in Affliction’s shade, Hast thou, kind artist, with attraction drest, With all that Nature in my soul express’d. Sarah Morton, 1803 These lines by American author Sarah Morton were written in honor of her portrait’s completion and inscribed to the artist Gilbert Stuart, the foremost painter during the early republic. Her panegyric, “[T]o Mr. Stuart, On His Portrait of Mrs. M.,” was printed in Port Folio. In neat neoclassic couplets, Morton extolled the painter’s formidable artistic talents. And in what is thought to be the sole example of Stuart’s lyric efforts, the artist responded in kind.