Life

He was born at Edinburgh in October or November 1791. He was articled to Robert Scott

Robert Scott (engraver)

-Life:The son of Robert and Grizell Scott, he was born on 13 November 1777 at Lanark, where his father was a skinner. He attended the grammar school at Musselburgh, and at the age of ten was articled to Andrew Robertson, an engraver at Edinburgh; there he also worked in the Trustees' Academy. Among...

 the engraver, and had as his helpful fellow pupil John Burnet

John Burnet (painter)

John Burnet was a Scottish engraver and painter.-Life:Son of the Surveyor-General of Excise of Scotland, Burnet was born either in Edinburgh in 1781 or in Fisherrow in 1784...

. He also studied drawing in the Trustees' Academy. On the foundation of the Royal Scottish Academy

Royal Scottish Academy

The Royal Scottish Academy is a Scottish organisation that promotes contemporary Scottish art. Founded in 1826, as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, the RSA maintains a unique position in Scotland as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and...

 in 1826 he became an original member.

In 1830 Stewart moved to London. In 1833 he was induced by financial troubles to emigrate to Cape Colony

Cape Colony

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

; there he settled as a farmer, but within a year lost everything through the outbreak of the Sixth Xhosa War. He then went to reside in the town of Somerset East. Teaching and painting portraits, he earned enough to purchase another property. He subsequently became a magistrate and a member of the legislature, and died in the colony in May 1863.

Works

Stewart's first independent plate was from Sir William Allan's ‘Tartar Robbers dividing the Spoil,’ which was followed by ‘Circassian Captives,’ 1820; ‘The Murder of Archbishop Sharpe,’ 1824; and ‘Queen Mary signing her Abdication,’ all from paintings by Allan. He then became associated with David Wilkie

David Wilkie

David Wilkie may refer to:* Sir David Wilkie , Scottish painter* Sir David Wilkie , British surgeon, scientist and philanthropist* David Wilkie...

, for whom he executed, with other works, a plate of the ‘Penny Wedding.’

In London he engraved ‘The Pedlar,’ after Wilkie, and ‘Hide and Seek,’ from a picture painted by himself in the style of Wilkie, which was exhibited at the British Institution

British Institution

The British Institution was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it was also known as the Pall Mall Picture Galleries or the British Gallery...

in 1829.