CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (1741-1827)
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (1741-1827)
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (1741-1827)
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PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF ELEANOR CUSTIS WRIGHT
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (1741-1827)

JOHN CUSTIS WILSON, JR.

Details
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (1741-1827)
JOHN CUSTIS WILSON, JR.
oil on canvas
33 x 27 7⁄8 in. (oval)
Painted in 1791
Provenance
Probable line of descent:
John Custis Wilson (1761-1830) and his wife Margaret 'Peggy' Custis Wilson (1763-1825), Westover, Somerset County, Maryland, parents of sitter
Possibly John Custis Wilson, Jr. (1784-1832), Westover, sitter
Dr. Henry Parke Custis Wilson (1801-1875), brother
Dr. Henry Parke Custis Wilson (1827-1897), son
Henrietta Chauncey (Wilson) Whiteley (1863-1908), daughter
Eleanor Custis Whiteley (Mrs. Edwin Nash Broyles) (1896-1984), Baltimore, daughter
Eleanor Custis Broyles (Mrs. Charles Alan Wright) (1924-2023), Austin, daughter
Literature
Charles Coleman Sellers, Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale (Philadelphia, 1952), pp. 252, 328, no. 993, illustrated.

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Lot Essay

In 1791, America’s preeminent artist, Charles Willson Peale, visited Westover Plantation, in Somerset County, Maryland. There, over the course of his two-week stay, he painted the portraits of the plantation’s owners, Mr. and Mrs. John Custis Wilson, and, as seen in the work offered here, their seven-year old son, John Custis Wilson, Jr. Detailing the debate between the artist and patron regarding size and expense, the commission is recorded in the artist’s diary:

After dinner I ask Mr. Wilson what portraits he wishes me to do, and his reply was only his son, and the size was to be the cheapest. I advised him to take the 10 guinea size. We talked about the price of taking Mrs. Wilson with her son. I told (him) my price would be 17 guins… He said he would have all the portraits, but (for) the difficulty of his getting money to pay me. He said he might with difficulty get half the money. I told (him) 'that with me should be no balk. I would do them.' He said perhaps that in a fortnight he might get the whole. I told him that I should be near that time finishing the pictures, and he agreed that I should begin the 3 portraits. Accordingly I set to work, and this afternoon made the beginning of Mr. Wilson portrait.
-Charles Willson Peale, Diary, 1791 (as cited in the Frick Art Reference Library (FARL), no. 121, 11b).

The diary also records a payment of £52.10.00 for all three portraits and Peale later noted in his autobiography that 'This family is probably one of the richest in the county. They are much respected and deservedly enjoy the love and esteem of all their neighbors…' (FARL, cited above). The father was the grandson of John Custis (1706-1746), whose first cousin Daniel Parke Custis (1711-1757), was the first husband of Martha Dandridge (1731-1802), later the wife of President George Washington.

As noted at the time of its publication in 1952, this portrait was owned by a descendant, Mrs. Edwin N. Broyles. Born Eleanor Custis Whiteley (1896-1984), she was a great-granddaughter of the sitter’s brother, Henry Parke Custis Wilson (1801-1875). Henry also inherited the portraits of their parents, which descended through separate lines from one of his daughters. Both are now reunited and in the collections of Colonial Williamsburg (acc. nos. 2013-103 and 2014-46). This portrait appears to have descended directly from Henry’s son of the same name.

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