Don’t look now, but Newport seems to be having a red-carpet moment.

Last week, the City by the Sea hosted its 10th annual Newport International Film Festival, attracting celebrities such as Claire Danes and Mamie Gummer and celebrating the release of a new film — Lajos Koltai’s Evening — set against the sparkle of the city’s Gilded Age mansions. Rhode Island’s second city is also the focus of a new book — Newport: A Lively Experiment, by TV journalist-turned-historian Rockwell Stensrud — which all but grants the city bragging rights as the birthplace of American democracy.

As it happens, the city’s history is also the focus of a pair of intriguing new shows at the Newport Art Museum.

One, “Coming to Light: Portraiture and Marine Painting from the Newport Historical Society,” features about 50 works — including a wonderful group of Colonial-era portraits — on loan from the Newport Historical Society. The other, “Command of the Sea,” features highlights from the collections of three naval institutions: the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Naval Art Collection and the U.S. Naval War College Museum.

Together, the two shows offer something for just about everyone.

History buffs, for example, will find a wealth of fascinating material, especially in the densely packed “portrait gallery” that NAM curator Nancy Whipple Grinnell has created in one of the museum’s two Cushing Memorial galleries. Here, visitors will find portraits of several dozen distinguished Newporters, ranging from war heroes (Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry) to religious leaders (the Rev. Dr. Roderick Terry) to artists (John Taylor, a Newport-born painter and art teacher whose students included the young Gilbert Stuart.)

Newport’s long history as a naval and maritime center is also well documented.

Though founded as a haven for religious dissent, the city quickly emerged as a busy commercial port dominated by a wealthy group of merchants and ship owners. That wealth, in turn, is on conspicuous display in some of the Historical Society portraits — notably those of John Gidley Jr., a Colonial merchant who poses in a fancy blue frock coat and silk vest trimmed with gold brocade, and Mr. and Mrs. William Tilley, both looking stylish in black satin and white lace (her) and a black frock coat with high collar (him).

As for actual ships, both “Coming to Light” and “Command of the Sea” boast a flotilla’s worth of paintings commemorating famous ships, boat races and naval battles. Perhaps the most impressive of the group — and the most surprising, given our current involvement in Iraq — is Michele Corne’s panoramic view of an American naval attack on the North African city of Tripoli (now the capital of Libya).

The date of the attack: August 3, 1804.

Art lovers, meanwhile, will find some familiar names attached to paintings in both shows. In “Coming to Light,” they include Colonial-era portraitist Robert Feke, as well as 19th-century masters such as William Trost Richards, Edward Mitchell Bannister and John Frederick Kensett. In “Command of the Seas,” look for works by a diverse crew of artists, including Corne, Norman Rockwell and Thomas Hart Benton.

Most importantly, perhaps, the two shows remind us that Newport’s history doesn’t begin (or end) with the famous Gilded Age “summer cottages” along Bellevue Avenue. That’s especially true of the portraits in “Coming to Light,” where the list of sitters doesn’t include a single Duke, Astor or Vanderbilt.

Instead, visitors will find people like Judge John Gidley Sr., a Colonial-era eminence who appears in full judicial regalia, including a spectacular shoulder-length powdered wig. His son, John Gidley Jr., is even more impressive. Decked out in the 18th-century equivalent of an Armani power suit, the younger Gidley cuts a fine, if slightly portly, figure, in his fancy frock coat and gold-trimmed vest.

And fine clothes aren’t the only way the Gidleys expressed their status. By choosing Robert Feke, then one of the most sought-after portrait painters in New England, to paint their portraits, the Gidleys were visually advertising their wealth and position, as well as their refined artistic taste.

Nor were the Gidleys alone in making portraiture a family affair. Brothers William and Benjamin Ellery appear in a pair of bust-length portraits by another prominent Colonial artist, Nehemiah Partridge. Partridge also did a fine three-quarter-length portrait of Benjamin’s wife. Another member of the Ellery clan, Benjamin Ellery III, turns up in a slighter later and more polished portrait by Joseph Blackburn.

Not surprisingly, many of the show’s portraits depict people at the upper end of Newport’s social and economic scale. After all, it costs money to commission a portrait — and even more money to commission a portrait from prominent artists like Feke and Partridge. Yet the portraits also reveal a wide range of backgrounds and occupations. A portrait by an unknown artist, for example, depicts Henry Marchand, a Newport lawyer who served as delegate to the Continental Congress. Another portrait, also by an anonymous artist, depicts Commodore Perry, the Newport-born hero of the War of 1812. (Interestingly, the Perry portrait once adorned a floorboard in Perry’s own house.) Other sitters range from artists and architects to sea captains and clergymen.)

The show also features several portraits by Jane Stuart, daughter of the great Federal-era portraitist Gilbert Stuart. Though not in her father’s class as an artist — she basically learned to paint by helping out in her father’s studio — her portraits nevertheless convey a sense of personality and emotional warmth.

“Coming to Light: Portraiture and Marine Painting from the Newport Historical Society” runs through June 24 and “Command of the Sea: Highlights from the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Naval Art Collection and the U.S. Naval War College Museum” through Aug. 12 at the Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Ave. Museum hours: Mon.-Sun. 10-5. Admission: $6 adults, $5 seniors, $4 students, free under 5. (401) 848-8200 or www

.newportartmuseum.com.

bvansicl@projo.com