![Julius LeBlanc Stewart - Summer (L’etè, Summer’s Promenade) [1880]](http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1613/26397890670_b2bfa5d30b_h.jpg)
Julius Stewart’s family moved from Philadelphia to Paris in 1865 where they joined a large circle of expatriate Americans immersed in the arts. Stewart’s father, William Hood Stewart (1820-1892), was a wealthy businessman who built one of the most important contemporary art collections of the nineteenth century. His father’s renown as a collector allowed the young Stewart easy access to the ateliers of the city’s most famous artists. He studied under the Spanish painters Eduardo Zamacoîs and Raimundo de Madrazo, and with Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux Arts. Stewart’s work reveals the influence not only of his academic instructors, but also of artists such as Alfred Stevens who were represented in his father’s prominent collection.
[Sotheby’s, New York - Oil on canvas, 85.4 x 149.9 cm]