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Rembrandt Peale

George Washington, 1859

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 42B

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 76.5 x 63.5 cm (30 1/8 x 25 in.)

framed: 95.3 x 83.8 cm (37 1/2 x 33 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1947.17.16

Artists / Makers

Rembrandt Peale (artist) American, 1778 - 1860

Image Use

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Inscription

by a later hand reproducing the original signature, lower right: Painted by Rembrandt Peale from Pine's Washington

Provenance

Estate of the artist;[1] (M. Thomas & Sons, Philadelphia, November 18, 1862, no. 80);[2] Levi Taylor [d. 1871], Philadelphia;[3] his son, John Dickson Taylor [1825-1886], Philadelphia;[4] his daughter, Alice Taylor [Mrs. Harrison L.] Townsend, Philadelphia;[5] (sale, Stanislaus V. Henkels, Philadelphia, June 13, 1922, no. 34);[6] Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[7] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA.

[1] Thomas Sully and John Devereux, "List of pictures belonging to the Estate of the late Rembrandt Peale," 16 November 1860, Register of Wills, City of Philadelphia, no. 13, "Copy by R. Peale from Pine's portrait of Washington" (Miller 1980, fiche VIA/14D3; the full inventory is in Lillian B. Miller, Collected Papers of Charles Willson Peale, microfiche edition, 1980: fiche VIA/14D2-D8); see John A. Mahey, "The Studio of Rembrandt Peale", AmArtJ 1969: 33-34.

[2] R. Peale Paintings: 6, lot 80; an annotated copy at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (Miller 1980, fiche VIA/14E1-F4) is inscribed with the buyer's name, "Mr. Taylor" (Miller 1980, fiche VIA/14E6); see also Mahey 1969, 33-34.

[3] According to information sent by Stanislaus V. Henkels to Charles X. Harris, 23 June 1922 (NGA curatorial files), Levi Taylor was "of the firm of Taylor, Gillespie & Co, Philadelphia," and a bank director. He is listed in most Philadelphia directories for the years 1861-1871 at the same business or residence addresses as his son John D. Taylor. A will (Register of Wills, Philadelphia, W-607 1/2-1880), which lists his wife Mary Hayward as his heir, was written on 21 September 1821 and admitted to probate on 18 November 1871.

[4] Taylor, a sugar refiner and member of the firm of Taylor, Gillespie, and Company, served as treasurer of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company from 1878 to his death in 1886; see John Elfreth Watkins, History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 1846-1896, in its Relation to the Pennsylvania State Canals and Railroads and the Consolidated System East and West of Pittsburgh, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1896: 1:585, 657; George H. Burgess and Miles C. Kennedy, Centennial History of The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Philadelphia, 1949: 797. His birth date is included in information supplied by Stanislaus V. Henkels to C.X. Harris, 23 June 1922 (NGA curatorial files), with the information that the portrait was bequeathed to him by his father.

[5] According to the letter from auctioneer Stanislaus Henkels to Charles X. Harris, dated 23 June 1922 (NGA curatorial files), Mrs. Townsend acquired the portrait at her father's death.

[6] Stanislaus V. Henkels, Antique Furniture, Old Silver and Porcelain, Relics of Martha Washington and Benj. Franklin, catalogue for auction on 13 June 1922, Philadelphia, 1922: frontispiece and 6.

[7] Charles X. Harris purchased the portrait for Clarke; see his telegram, dated 13 June 1922, Clarke files, NGA. The seller of the portrait is also recorded in an annotated copy of Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928 (NGA Library).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Henkels, Stan. V.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Taylor, John Dickson
Taylor, Levi
Thomas and Sons, M.
Townsend, Alice Taylor

Exhibition History

1862: The Late Rembrant[sic] Peale's Collection, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1862, no. 682.

1923: Exhibition of Portraits by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, 1923, no. 9.

1928: Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928-1931, unnumbered and unpaginated catalogue.

1943: Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1943-1961.

1947: Early American Portraits and Silver, J. B. Speed Memorial Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, 1947, no cat.

1976: Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1976-1978.

1982: Extended loan for use by the Ambassador, U.S. Embassy residence, Stockholm, Sweden, 1982-1986.

1986: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Otto J. Reich, U.S. Embassy residence, Caracas, Venezuela, 1986-1989.

1991: Extended loan for use by Justice David Souter, The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1991-2009.

Bibliography

1928: Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, unnumbered.

1931: Morgan, John Hill, and Mantle Fielding. The Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas. Philadelphia, 1931: 384, no. 3.

1969: Mahey, John A. "The Studio of Rembrandt Peale." The American Art Journal I, no. 2 (Fall 1969): 33-34, no. 80, fig. 7.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 88, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 206, repro.

1986: Scheflow, Carrie H. "Rembrandt Peale: A Chronology." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 110, no. 1 (January 1986): 179.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 257, repro.

1998: Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 64-68, color repro.