The Skater is an
oil painting on canvas completed by the American artist
Gilbert Stuart in 1782, while he was living in London. Stuart's first full-length portrait, it depicts a young Scotsman named William Grant, whom the artist painted from memory after the two went skating together on the
Serpentine in
Hyde Park.
The Skater was widely praised after being displayed at the
Royal Academy of Arts, and the artist began to receive numerous prominent commissions. Stuart later said that he had been "suddenly lifted into fame by [this] single picture", which is now held by the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Painting: Gilbert Stuart