Existing comment:
Rembrandt Peale
George Washington, ca 1840s
This iconic image of America's founding president made Rembrandt Peale's reputation. The second son of renowned portraitist Charles Wilson Peale (who named his children after famous artists of the past), the precocious Rembrandt, at age seventeen, painted Washington during a sitting his father arranged in Philadelphia. He alternated his work there with the celebrated painter Gilbert Stuart. Peale went on to produce more than ten copies of this life portrait. A quarter of a century later, he created a new image of Washington, which he hoped would become the "standard likeness" of the first president.
By blending portraiture with history painting, Peale invented a bust-length composition that drew from other famous renderings of Washington -- by Stuart, John Trumbull, and, especially, Jean-Antoine Houdon. Known as the Patriae Pater (Father of His Country) or "porthole" portrait, Peale's mild and dignified leader set against a cloudy sky was heralded by Thomas Jefferson as an "everlasting remembrance." The countless oil replicas of the image, including this version, fueled the rising hero worship of Washington throughout the 19th century. |