Not currently on view
In the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · as of August 2026
FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG
Wilson Cary Nicholas was born January 31, 1761, into a politically powerful family from Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1781, he left William and Mary College to join the Continental Army, in which he commanded George Washington’s lifeguard until it was disbanded in 1783. As a member of the Constitutional Convention, he returned to Virginia to campaign for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in that state, where it passed by a margin of only ten votes. He then served several terms in the House of Delegates before being elected to the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. He became the governor of Virginia in 1814, retiring in 1819 due to poor health and spending his remaining days in the home of his son-in-law, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, President Thomas Jefferson’s grandson. He died on October 20, 1820, and is buried at Monticello, the president’s former estate.
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Gilbert Stuart — Stephen Van Rensselaer III
Gilbert Stuart — Benjamin Tappan
Gilbert Stuart — Edward Shippen
after Gilbert Stuart — William Constable
Gilbert Stuart — William Thornton
Gilbert Stuart — Portrait of Richard Barrington, Later Fourt
Gilbert Stuart — James Madison
Gilbert Stuart — Captain Joseph Anthony
Gilbert Stuart — Samuel Alleyne Otis
Gilbert Stuart — Counsellor John Dunn
Gilbert Stuart — Joseph Coolidge
Gilbert Stuart — Dr. William Hartigan (?)
