Lot Essay
George Washington sat for Rembrandt Peale three times for three hours each in the autumn of 1795. The experience was documented by both men in their letters. While the President expresses a concern that the burdens of his responsibilities for the young Republic would be revealed in the likeness Peale was rendering, the artist expresses the fact that this was an opportunity of a lifetime for a young portrait painter.
President Washington states: "Having yielded to importunity, I am now, contrary to all expectations under the hands of Mr. Peale; but in so grave -- so sullen a mood -- and now and then under the influence of Morpheus, when some critical strokes are making, that I fancy the skill of this Gentleman's Pencil, will be put to it, in describing to the World what manner of man I am (Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, 9:49)."
Rembrandt Peale can be quoted: "It was in the autumn of 1795 that, at my father's request, Washington consented to sit to me, and the hour he appointed was seven o'clock in the morning. I was up before daylight putting everything in the best condition for the sitting with which I was to be honored, but before the hour arrived became so agitated that I could scarcely mix my clors, and was concerned that my anxiety would overpower me and that I should fail in my purpose unlesss my father would agree to take a canvas alongside me and thus give me an assurance that the sittings would not be unprofitable, by affording a double chance for a likeness..."
Washington was bored and restless when he reluctantly surrendered to the numerous requests from private individuals and public groups for his portrait but my the time Peale painted his 1795 portrait, he had learned to surrender more or less gracefully. As he wrote to Francis Hopkinson on 16 May 1785, when he was sitting for a portrait by Robert Edge Pine, "In for a penny, in for a pound, is an old adage. I am so hackneyed to the touches of the Painters pencil, that I am now altogether at their beck, and sit like patience on a Monument whilst they are delineating the lines of my face.... At first I was impatient at the request, and as restive under the operation, as a Colt is of the Saddle -- The next time, I submitted very reluctantly, but with less flouncing. Now, no dray moves more readily to the Thill, than I do to the Painters Chair." (The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, 2:561-62).
President Washington states: "Having yielded to importunity, I am now, contrary to all expectations under the hands of Mr. Peale; but in so grave -- so sullen a mood -- and now and then under the influence of Morpheus, when some critical strokes are making, that I fancy the skill of this Gentleman's Pencil, will be put to it, in describing to the World what manner of man I am (Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, 9:49)."
Rembrandt Peale can be quoted: "It was in the autumn of 1795 that, at my father's request, Washington consented to sit to me, and the hour he appointed was seven o'clock in the morning. I was up before daylight putting everything in the best condition for the sitting with which I was to be honored, but before the hour arrived became so agitated that I could scarcely mix my clors, and was concerned that my anxiety would overpower me and that I should fail in my purpose unlesss my father would agree to take a canvas alongside me and thus give me an assurance that the sittings would not be unprofitable, by affording a double chance for a likeness..."
Washington was bored and restless when he reluctantly surrendered to the numerous requests from private individuals and public groups for his portrait but my the time Peale painted his 1795 portrait, he had learned to surrender more or less gracefully. As he wrote to Francis Hopkinson on 16 May 1785, when he was sitting for a portrait by Robert Edge Pine, "In for a penny, in for a pound, is an old adage. I am so hackneyed to the touches of the Painters pencil, that I am now altogether at their beck, and sit like patience on a Monument whilst they are delineating the lines of my face.... At first I was impatient at the request, and as restive under the operation, as a Colt is of the Saddle -- The next time, I submitted very reluctantly, but with less flouncing. Now, no dray moves more readily to the Thill, than I do to the Painters Chair." (The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, 2:561-62).