Gilbert Stuart is a difficult artist to write upon for a variety of reasons. The first of which is that he has such an incredible body of work (well over one thousand portraits), yet seldom signed or dated them. Secondly, there is little written documentation by the artist himself, which leads to the "novelization" of his history. However, Dr. Evans provides a wonderfully written biography of the artist's life and a through examination of the evolution of his artistic style. Scholastically, this book covers all the bases, and Dr. Evans' footnotes prove to be extremely valuable for the Gilbert Stuart scholar. Finally, the color reproductions are splendid, which makes The Genius of Gilbert Stuart a wonderful coffee table book if you're not interested in Stuart in an academic sense.