Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778-1860). Portrait of George Washington, 1857. Oil on canvas. 36 x 29 inches (91.4 x 73.7 c...

Description

Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778-1860)
Portrait of George Washington, 1857
Oil on canvas
36 x 29 inches (91.4 x 73.7 cm)
Signed lower left: Rembrandt Peale
Bears inscription on the reverse: Painted by: / Rembrandt Peale / 1857 / from original / portrait of Washington / 1795 / Copy from original canvas and / relined by G. Anton, / 1932

PROVENANCE:
By descent through the Romanoff Family of Russia;
Terrance H. Geaghan Shipmasters Gallery, Bath, Maine, August 22, 1994;
Private collection, Augusta, Maine, acquired from the above;
Estate of the above;
James D. Julia Auctioneers, Fairfield, Maine, August 20, 2013, lot 1075;
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Intentionally rivaling fellow portraitists John Trumbull, Gilbert Stuart, and his own father, Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale made it his professional mission to render "the national portrait and standard likeness" of George Washington.

In 1787, as a boy in Philadelphia, Rembrandt met Washington, whom Charles Willson had recently celebrated in George Washington at the Battle of Princeton, and in 1795, at the age of seventeen, he requested from his father his first portrait sitting with the president; the resulting George Washington, an accomplished naturalistic study, focused on facial details over costume and captured an aging but proud man.

Over the next two decades, Rembrandt Peale painted various likenesses of Washington after other artists like the sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, and in 1823, he verbalized his determination to create the official portrait:

"No Artist ever found his pride more strongly excited by magnitude and interest of his purpose than mine to rescue from oblivion the aspect of a Man who would forever be venerated as the 'Father of his Country.'" (C. Hevner, Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1985, p. 66)

Peale's purpose was fueled by commercialism as much as nationalism-a popular portrait had the potential to generate a demand for replicas. The 1824 George Washington, Patriae Pater realized Peale's goals: It memorialized the President as a classical hero, depicting him in velvet finery against an ethereal ground and set within an oval trompe-l'oeil stone frame, carved with an oak wreath and the head of Jupiter. The portrait also served as the model for Peale's subsequent lucrative Washington commissions, including lithographs, equestrian portraits, and numerous smaller "porthole" portraits.

The present work exemplifies this "porthole" portrait, otherwise known as the George Washington Copy, which derived from the Patriae Pater and solidified Peale's reputation as the foremost 19th-century Washington painter. Around 1846, Peale began producing the Copy, featuring the Patriae Pater portrait bust within a simplified stonework frame, and available in different sizes (the standard was 25 x 30"), in military or civilian dress, and with orientation to the left or right. For the rest of his career, he solicited commissions for the Copy through pamphlets and a traveling lecture, "Washington and his Portraits." An 1857 article in The Crayon describes the successful lecture Peale delivered at the New York Historical Society:

"At the close of the reading Mr. Peale exhibited various portraits of Washington, together with one of Mrs. Washington, all painted by himself; the pictures were brilliantly lighted, and so arranged as to be seen to great advantage. The remarks upon the portraits were interspersed with anecdotes, personal reminiscences, and historical facts, possessing marked interest, as they were listened to with unflagging attention."(Ibid. 88) In its 1850s context, Peale's George Washington would have reminded audiences of the nobility and unity of America's founding era and, indeed, a foil to the growing anxiety of the country on the brink of the Civil War.

The provenance of the present work is as remarkable as the portrait itself: The painting was previously owned by generations of the illustrious Romanoff family. The Romanov family, often Romanoff in various transliterations, is historically recognized not only for its political and cultural influence as the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia but also for its significant contributions to the arts. Under their patronage, Russian art flourished, embodying the grandeur and opulence of the imperial court. The Romanovs were instrumental in establishing a strong cultural identity through art, which manifested in architecture, painting, and the decorative arts. They commissioned works from both Russian and European artists, fostering a rich exchange of styles and ideas. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, founded by Catherine the Great, a Romanov empress, is a testament to their artistic legacy, housing one of the world's largest and most prestigious collections of art. The dynasty's downfall did not diminish its lasting impact on the global art scene, with Romanov-commissioned pieces and period artifacts continuing to be highly valued and studied for their historical and artistic significance.

George Washington subsequently passed to a private Maine collector, who acquired the work directly from the Romanoff family in 1994. Upon passing to the collector's estate, the painting was sold at auction in 2013 to a prominent collector of Americana, where it has remained to this day.

The present work is accompanied by a copy of the Terrance H. Geaghan Shipmasters Gallery bill of sale.




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