George Washington by Rembrandt Peale
REMBRANDT PEALE (AMERICAN, 1778 - 1860)
Patriae Pater (Father of the Nation), c. 1846
“Every American considers it his sacred duty to have a likeness of Washington in his home, just as we have images of God’s saints.”
— Avraham Yarmolinsky, Picturesque United State of America, 1930
When he was eighteen, Rembrandt Peale painted a portrait of George Washington from life. From that time, he worked to create a likeness that would become the “Standard National Likeness” of the Father of our Nation or Patriae Pater. By the late nineteenth century Peale had perfected his portrait, with the image widely reproduced in print throughout the United States and Europe. Original versions are found in the White House, Metropolitan Museum, Smithsonian, Huntington Library, and, now, here at Anthony’s Fine Art.
“Never was a portrait painted under any circumstances in which the whole soul of the Artist was more engaged than mine in this Washington,” Peal wrote in 1824.
He believed that no one had painted Washington satisfactorily. Washington was both a real person and symbol, having achieved power through repeated effort, maintaining that power with honor, and relinquishing that power 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.” (Lillian Miller, In Pursuit of Fame, 278.)
Describing his process, Peale said: “I assembled in my Painting Room every document representing in any degree the Man who still lived in my memory, but differing from them all.” In addition to the figure of Washington himself, Peale included subtle symbolic elements. The tromp l'oeil stonework—known in Greek as a clypeus—was used anciently to frame gods and heroes. And, the oak leaves, Peale wrote, indicate “strength of mind” because the oak is “the tree of the Golden Age of Law and Faith.”
Near the end of his life, the artist said: “It is impossible to contemplate the actions and character of Washington, his zealous adherence to the cause of Liberty, and his self-sacrificing patriotism, without feeling an ardent desire to know him, as it were, personally, and to judge how far his corporal features corresponded with his acknowledged mental and moral greatness.”
36 x 30 in.
Oil on canvas
Signed lower left “Rembrandt Peale”
Provenance:
The Artist.
Giles F. Ward (1812-1885), purchased Feb. 22nd, 1845.
Lucy Bell Ward (1847-1926).
Mrs. Sully, whose husband was a grandson of Thomas Sully.
M. Knoedler & Company, New York.
Colonel Charles Clifton, Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co., purchased April 12th, 1926. Mrs. Alice (Clifton) Strachan, Buffalo, New York.
Thence by descent.
