Stuart Feld graduated from Princeton University in 1957 with an A.B. in the Department of Art & Archaeology. He completed his graduate studies at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University in 1961, and in the same year, became one of the first Fellows at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. From 1962 to 1967 he worked in the Department of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum, during which time he co-authored American Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1967, Stuart left his post as Associate Curator in Charge of the Department and joined Hirschl & Adler Galleries as a partner, becoming its sole proprietor in 1982.
Stuart has authored many articles and catalogues in the field of American Art—both fine and decorative arts—and is a frequent lecturer around the country. He has served for many years on the Advisory Council of the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey; on the Visiting Committee of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York; on the Advisory Council of the Florence Griswold Museum at Old Lyme, Connecticut; and on the Board of the Landmarks Conservancy in New York City. He was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2001.
Stuart is currently working with Kathleen Burnside toward the completion of the definitive catalogue raisonné of the work of the American Impressionist painter Childe Hassam. Among his Hirschl & Adler exhibitions and catalogues have been Neo-Classicism in America: Inspiration and Innovation, 1810–1840 (1991); Boston in the Age of Neo-Classicism, 1810–1840 (1998–99); Of the Newest Fashion: Masterpieces of American Neo-Classical Decorative Arts (2001–02); In Pointed Style: The Gothic Revival in America, 1800–1860 (2006); For Work & For Play: A Selection of American Neo-Classical Furniture (2007); and The World of Duncan Phyfe: The Arts of New York, 1800–1847 (2012), in celebration of the gallery's 60th anniversary, and accompanied by an extensive 152-page catalogue, all but the first in collaboration with his daughter, Elizabeth Feld. More recently, Stuart and Liz curated Very Rich & Handsome: American Neo-Classical Decorative Arts (2014–15); and Augmenting the Canon: Recent Acquisitions of American Neo-Classical Decorative Arts (2018).