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Lot Essay
At the turn of the nineteenth century, portrait painting was considered to be of great importance and highly regarded by those who could afford fine art. Yet, "all of his life, Peale was to feel that art ought to fulfill some moral, spiritual, or patriotic purpose that lay beyond the ken of simple portraiture." (L.B. Miller, Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1985, p. 20) These qualities permeate Rembrandt Peale's work and manifest themselves in his portraits of George Washington.
Washington sat for Rembrandt Peale three times, each for three hours 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.
Rembrandt Peale recalled, "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 colors, and was concerned that my anxiety would overpower me and that I should fail in my purpose unless 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..."
To the American public, George Washington "was as much a symbolic entity as an individual out of history, having gained fame through his repeated ability to both exercise power successfully and then relinquish it gracefully. He manifested the republican virtues of fortitude, self-mastery, resoluteness, immunity to political ambition, moderation, impeccable public conduct, self-sacrifice on his nation's behalf, and even piety. " (L.B. Miller, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860, Washington D.C., 1992, p. 281)
Washington sat for Rembrandt Peale three times, each for three hours 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.
Rembrandt Peale recalled, "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 colors, and was concerned that my anxiety would overpower me and that I should fail in my purpose unless 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..."
To the American public, George Washington "was as much a symbolic entity as an individual out of history, having gained fame through his repeated ability to both exercise power successfully and then relinquish it gracefully. He manifested the republican virtues of fortitude, self-mastery, resoluteness, immunity to political ambition, moderation, impeccable public conduct, self-sacrifice on his nation's behalf, and even piety. " (L.B. Miller, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860, Washington D.C., 1992, p. 281)