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Lot Essay
Determined, almost obsessively so, to capture a perfect likeness of George Washington, Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) drew upon his own earlier works, and works by other artists he revered who, like himself, had rendered Washington from life. Foremost among these artists was the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828), who took a plaster cast of Washington in 1785 that became the basis for his full-length statue and numerous marble busts. Ten years later, at the behest of his father, Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), seventeen-year old Rembrandt painted Washington from three life sittings. In 1808, Peale travelled to Paris where he visited Houdon’s studio, painted a portrait of the renowned sculptor and saw first-hand the original plaster cast taken in 1785. With a strong brow, Roman nose and pronounced jaw, Houdon’s likeness greatly influenced Rembrandt Peale when he embarked on his “porthole” portrait of Washington in 1823.
The sketch offered here represents Rembrandt Peale’s continued efforts towards the end of his life to portray the most faithful likeness of Washington. Capitalizing on his stature as the only surviving artist to have painted Washington from life, Peale embarked on a series of lectures entitled “Portraits of Washington,” which he delivered from 1857 to 1859 in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Richmond. Peale illustrated his lectures with a display of selected works, including Houdon’s bust and his own profile based on the bust, which he called a “Colossal Monochrome.” This painting, now in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. no. W1893-1-84), was rendered in 1857 and dated two years earlier, the sketch offered here is undoubtedly a preparatory study.
As recounted in newspaper accounts and Peale’s lecture, Peale’s painted version of the profile was an attempt to improve the likeness of the bust. One such account notes:
The lecturer then referred to Houdon’s bust of Washington, and exhibited a colossal monocram [sic], giving a profile view of it, which view gave all the merits, he said, and avoided the faults of the bust, which was injured by giving too much prominence to the chin, and throwing his shoulders too far back. (The Times-Picayune, December 24, 1859, p. 16)
Excerpts from an original manuscript of Peale’s lecture goes into more detail:
…I assembled in my studio all the portraits of Washington we could collect; and among them, Houdon’s Bust, which I placed in such a selected light, as to bring out the most characteristic parts, and to throw into shadow those which I thought were the least expressive. Judge Bushrod Washington… on glancing at it… exclaimed that he never before had seen so much of likeness in it, although he possessed a bust from the hands of Houdon himself (as quoted in Helen C. Frick, “Houdon and Rembrandt Peale,” The Magazine Antiques (July 1934), p. 9).
Peale continues by noting that an engraving of this profile was “inaccurately executed” so in response, Peale painted his own profile:
I have endeavored in a Colossal Monochrome to be more correct in delineating it—a Profile of unsurpassed benignity and grandeur of character. This is Washington in his retirement at Mount Vernon, two years after the declaration of Peace (Helen C. Frick, p. 9).
The sketch offered here and the painted version at the Philadelphia Museum of Art illustrate Peale’s “corrections.” The heads are level, looking straight ahead rather than tilted upward and with slightly upturned mouths and gentler modelling, the overall effect is less severe. Instead, their sitters are relaxed with an air of contentment, a demeanor that Peale thought fitting for a man who had just led his country to victory.
The sketch may be the item described as no. 63 “Bust of Houdon’s Washington” valued at $5.00 in the inventory of Rembrandt Peale’s pictures taken after his death. In comparison, the painted version, listed as no. 14 “Colossal portrait of Washington after Houdon’s bust,” was valued at $100.00 (Pennsylvania Probate Records, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wills, No 350-399, 1860, available at ancestry.com). At the time of its sale in 1988, the sketch was owned by a descendant of the Haseltine family and was likely acquired by one of its members in the late nineteenth century. The Haseltines were leading figures in Philadelphia’s art world and the family included artist William Stanley Haseltine (1835-1900) and his brother, Charles Haseltine (1840-1915), a prominent art dealer, owner of Haseltine Art Galleries and member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club and Philadelphia Art Club.
The sketch offered here represents Rembrandt Peale’s continued efforts towards the end of his life to portray the most faithful likeness of Washington. Capitalizing on his stature as the only surviving artist to have painted Washington from life, Peale embarked on a series of lectures entitled “Portraits of Washington,” which he delivered from 1857 to 1859 in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Richmond. Peale illustrated his lectures with a display of selected works, including Houdon’s bust and his own profile based on the bust, which he called a “Colossal Monochrome.” This painting, now in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. no. W1893-1-84), was rendered in 1857 and dated two years earlier, the sketch offered here is undoubtedly a preparatory study.
As recounted in newspaper accounts and Peale’s lecture, Peale’s painted version of the profile was an attempt to improve the likeness of the bust. One such account notes:
The lecturer then referred to Houdon’s bust of Washington, and exhibited a colossal monocram [sic], giving a profile view of it, which view gave all the merits, he said, and avoided the faults of the bust, which was injured by giving too much prominence to the chin, and throwing his shoulders too far back. (The Times-Picayune, December 24, 1859, p. 16)
Excerpts from an original manuscript of Peale’s lecture goes into more detail:
…I assembled in my studio all the portraits of Washington we could collect; and among them, Houdon’s Bust, which I placed in such a selected light, as to bring out the most characteristic parts, and to throw into shadow those which I thought were the least expressive. Judge Bushrod Washington… on glancing at it… exclaimed that he never before had seen so much of likeness in it, although he possessed a bust from the hands of Houdon himself (as quoted in Helen C. Frick, “Houdon and Rembrandt Peale,” The Magazine Antiques (July 1934), p. 9).
Peale continues by noting that an engraving of this profile was “inaccurately executed” so in response, Peale painted his own profile:
I have endeavored in a Colossal Monochrome to be more correct in delineating it—a Profile of unsurpassed benignity and grandeur of character. This is Washington in his retirement at Mount Vernon, two years after the declaration of Peace (Helen C. Frick, p. 9).
The sketch offered here and the painted version at the Philadelphia Museum of Art illustrate Peale’s “corrections.” The heads are level, looking straight ahead rather than tilted upward and with slightly upturned mouths and gentler modelling, the overall effect is less severe. Instead, their sitters are relaxed with an air of contentment, a demeanor that Peale thought fitting for a man who had just led his country to victory.
The sketch may be the item described as no. 63 “Bust of Houdon’s Washington” valued at $5.00 in the inventory of Rembrandt Peale’s pictures taken after his death. In comparison, the painted version, listed as no. 14 “Colossal portrait of Washington after Houdon’s bust,” was valued at $100.00 (Pennsylvania Probate Records, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wills, No 350-399, 1860, available at ancestry.com). At the time of its sale in 1988, the sketch was owned by a descendant of the Haseltine family and was likely acquired by one of its members in the late nineteenth century. The Haseltines were leading figures in Philadelphia’s art world and the family included artist William Stanley Haseltine (1835-1900) and his brother, Charles Haseltine (1840-1915), a prominent art dealer, owner of Haseltine Art Galleries and member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club and Philadelphia Art Club.