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| "George Peter Alexander Healy" by the artist |
"It would be a good thing, perhaps, if every man who had lived many years, who had been thrown in contact with interesting people, and had seen many phases of public and private life, would tell his story as simply as possible, and especially the story of his youth. The story of a life made up of struggles of hopes and fears, of defeats and victories, may be of some use in so far as it teaches a lesson of hope and courage.
My grandfather was an Irishman who was ruined by the rebellion of 1798. Being poor, naturally, he had a large family. All he could do for his sons was to give fifty pounds to each of them, to wish them well, and to bid them henceforth provide for their own wants. My father went to London, and was lucky enough to become a midshipman in the East India Company's navy. When his captain died, he went over to Boston, and was appointed captain of a merchant vessel, putting into the venture all his small earnings, and becoming before long a thorough American.
I was the eldest of five children and was born in Boston, July 15, 1813. In those early days there was but little encouragement to artistic vocations and certainly I should have been much surprised had anyone predicted my future career. However, one of my early remembrances is of having caught a glimpse of our great painter [Gilbert] Stuart. He had painted a portrait of my father before his marriage, so that the name was familiar to me. One day, as I was playing at marbles with some other boys of my age, one of them exclaimed: 'There goes old Stuart!' I looked up, but all I saw of 'old Stuart' was his back."
To be continued
(Excerpts from "Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter" by George Peter Alexander Healy.)
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