these trips until his term of service ended in 1822. Jarvis rose to the top of his profession by 1814, when he took over an unprecedented commission for six full-length portraits of the naval heroes of the War of 1812 for the City of New York. (Gilbert Stuart had given up the important project after a dispute with the patrons). For over a decade, he remained the premier portrait painter in New York, with important ties to the political, mercantile, and cultural elite. Jarvis was also something of a social outsider, known for his ostentatious dress, flippant manner, and propensity to consume alcohol. He was celebrated as a hilarious storyteller, and his ties to the theater world were many. As early as the 1820s, however, he received some personal setbacks. In 1823 he was sued successfully by his apprentice John Quidor for breach of contract, and the following year he lost custody of his children in a court battle with his estranged second wife. A decade later, in 1834, he suffered a debilitating stroke while in New Orleans. Partially paralyzed and mentally incapacitated, he spent the rest of his life in New York City, cared for by his sister. He died there in 1839, in poverty. Examples of his painting are in the collections of the New York Historical Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gallery References Attribution External links Biography at Maryland ArtSource Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Jarvis (see index) Metropolitan Museum of Art Works by John Wesley Jarvis included in their Permanent Collection 1780 births 1839 deaths 19th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists American male painters American portrait painters English portrait painters