Born in Dover, Maine, James Everett Stuart, a descendant of portraitist Gilbert Stuart, became known for his panoramic landscapes of the American West, especially in Northern California and Oregon. His parents took him to California at the age of eight, and the family settled in San Francisco where he attended the public schools and studied art with Virgil Williams, Raymond Yelland, Thomas Hill, and William Keith. His early work was dramatic California landscape, moody and mysterious and suggestive of the French Barbizon School. In 1881, he opened his studio in San Francisco and from there traveled throughout the West and East Coast and into Mexico. He spent fifteen years in Chicago, but in 1912 returned to San Francisco until his death. Many of the owners of old homes in California have his paintings on the wall, suggestive of a time of grandeur. His landscapes numbered over 5000 and many were painted on aluminum with a special adhering process he developed. One of his paintings is in the White House, and his work is in the historical societies of Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Biography taken from the archives of askart