Rubens Peale with a Geranium
1801
Artist, American, 1778 - 1860
Painter Charles Willson Peale named many of his children for famous artists, including his sons Rembrandt and Rubens Peale. Rembrandt became an artist himself. Here, he has painted his brother at age 17. Rubens, who had poor eyesight (note the two pairs of glasses), would not take up painting until late in life. First he focused on studying gardening and botany.
Rembrandt shows Rubens with a geranium — then a rare species of flower. In fact, this is thought to be the first geranium grown in the United States. Its prominent position in the painting and the way Rubens carefully grasps the pot suggest the plant’s importance. It may represent a growing sense of pride in American identity and ability.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 60-A
Artwork overview
-
Medium
oil on canvas
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 71.4 x 61 cm (28 1/8 x 24 in.)
framed: 89.5 x 79.7 x 5.6 cm (35 1/4 x 31 3/8 x 2 3/16 in.) -
Accession
1985.59.1
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
The artist; James Claypoole Copper, Philadelphia;[1] Mary Jane Peale [1827-1902], Pottsville, Pennsylvania, the daughter of the sitter, Rubens Peale;[2] her nephew, Albert Charles Peale [1849-1914], Washington, D.C.;[3] his cousin, Jessie Sellers Colton [Mrs. Sabin Woolworth Colton, Jr., 1855-1932], Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania;[4] her daughter, Mildred Colton [Mrs. Robert P.] Esty [1883-1977], Ardmore, Pennsylvania;[5] sold to Lawrence A. Fleischman, Detroit, Michigan;[6] (Kennedy Galleries, New York); purchased by Pauline E. [Mrs. Norman B.] Woolworth;[7] (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 5 December 1985, lot 42); purchased through (Kennedy Galleries, New York) by NGA.
[1] Rebecca Irwin Graff, Genealogy of the Claypoole Family of Philadelphia, 1893: 79, which does not record Copper's life dates.
[2] Copper's gift of the portrait to Rubens' Peale's daughter Mary Jane Peale in 1854 is discussed in the NGA systematic catalogue. For Mary Jane Peale's dates, see the genealogy of the Peale Family in Charles H. Elam, ed., The Peale Family: Three Generations of American Artists, Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, 1967: 10, and Lillian B. Miller, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860, Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1992: 231. For information that she lived in Pottsville, see Carol Eaton Hevner, "Rembrandt Peale's portraits of his brother Rubens", Antiques 130 (November): 1012.
[3] Mary Jane Peale bequeathed the portrait to her nephew Albert Charles Peale, the son of her brother Charles Willson Peale (1821-1871) and Harriet Friel Peale; for his dates see Charles Coleman Sellers, "Peale Genealogy," manuscript, Peale Papers Office, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 21: 255-56. Albert Peale was one of the executors of Mary Jane Peale's estate.
[4] The painting belonged to Jessie Sellers Colton by 1923, when she lent it to the exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. A label formerly on the painting (in NGA curatorial files) gives her name and address, and states that she was the great-niece of Rubens Peale. For her dates see Charles Coleman Sellers, "Peale Genealogy," manuscript, Peale Papers Office, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
[5] Mrs. Esty owned the portrait when it was reproduced in Charles Coleman Sellers, Charles Willson Peale, Later Life (1790-1827), Philadelphia, 1947: 2:opp. 147, fig. 12, and lent it in 1955 to the exhibition at Pennsylvania State University. For her birth date see Charles Coleman Sellers, "Peale Genealogy," manuscript, Peale Papers Office, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; her date of death is recorded in Social Register Association, Social Register, Summer 1978, New York, 1978: 92:98.
[6] Fleischman confirmed his ownership of the portrait in his letter of 19 December 1985 to NGA (in NGA curatorial files).
[7] Mrs. Woolworth was the owner by 1963, when she lent the painting to the exhibition American Art from American Collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1923
Exhibition of Portraits by Charles Willson Peale and James Peale and Rembrandt Peale, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1923, no. 73.
1955
Pennsylvania Painters, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; The Toledo Museum of Art, 1955-1956, no. 11.
1960
The Fabulous Peale Family, Kennedy Galleries, New York, 1960, no. 74.
1963
American Art from American Collections, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1963, no. 185.
1965
The Peale Family and Peale's Baltimore Museum, 1814-1830, The Peale Museum, Baltimore, 1965, no. 16.
1967
The Peale Family: Three Generations of American Artists, The Detroit Institute of Arts; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, 1967, no. 139.
1970
The American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth, Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, 1970, no. 87, repro.
19th Century America: Paintings and Sculpture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, no. 2, repro.
1976
The Eye of Thomas Jefferson, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1976, no. 600, repro.
1980
The Woolworth Collection: American Paintings, Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, 1980, checklist no. 2.
1981
Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801-1939, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; The Oakland Museum; Baltimore Museum of Art; National Academy of Design, New York, 1981-1982, checklist no. 112 (repro. in cat. by W. Gerdts).
1983
A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 11, repro.
1989
Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1988-1989, fig. 56.
1992
In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1992-1993, fig. 22, pl. 4.
1996
The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870, Philadelphia Museum of Art; M. H. De Young Memorial Museum; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1996-1997, no. 162, pl. 16 and frontispiece.
1999
America: The New World in 19th-Century Painting, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, 1999, no. 18, repro.
2003
Jefferson's America & Napoleon's France: An Exhibition for the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial, New Orleans Museum of Art, 2003, no. 136, repro.
2011
The Great American Hall of Wonders: Art, Science, and Invention in the Nineteenth Century, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., 2011-2012, fig. 102.
2015
Audubon to Warhol: The Art of the American Still Life, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum, 2015-2016, no. 17, repro. (shown only in Philadelphia).
2022
Eyesight & Insight: A Lens on American Art, Shelburne Museum, Inc./ Pizzagalli Center for Arts and Education, Shelburne, 2022, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 4.
Bibliography
1947
Sellers, Charles Coleman. Charles Willson Peale. Vol. 2: Later Life (1790-1827). Philadelphia, 1947: fig. 12, opp. 147.
1956
Rendezvous for Taste: Peale's Baltimore Museum, 1814-1830. Exh. cat. Peale Museum, Baltimore, 1956: repro. 2, 28, no. 82 (not exhibited).
1965
Feld, Stuart P. "'Loan Collection,' 1965." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 23, no. 8 (April 1965): 283, repro.
1971
Gerdts, William H., and Russell Burke. American Still-Life Painting. New York, 1971: 36, repro. 34, fig. 2-12.
1976
From Seed to Flower: Philadelphia, 1681-1876; A Horticultural Point of View. Exh. cat. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Philadelphia, 1976: 24, repro. 27.
Adams, William Howard, ed. The Eye of Thomas Jefferson. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1976: 346, no. 600, repro.
1977
Levene, John R. Clinical Refraction and Visual Science. London, 1977: 171-172.
1981
Gerdts, William H. Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939. Columbia, Missouri, 1981: 3, color pl. 3, 62-63.
1983
Miller, Lillian B., Sidney Hart, and David C. Ward, eds. The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family. Vol. 2: Charles Willson Peale: The Artist as Museum Keeper, 1791-1810. New Haven, 1988: 1047 n.4, 1096, 1098 n.15, 1241 n.2, pl. 6.
1984
Foshay, Ella. Reflections of Nature: Flowers in American Art. Exh. cat. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1984: 32-34, repro.
1985
Hevner, Carol Eaton. Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts. With a biographical essay by Lillian B. Miller. Exh. cat. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1985: 20, 21 fig. 5, 103 n. 8.
1986
Hevner, Carol Eaton. "Rubens Peale with a Geranium by Rembrandt Peale." In Art at Auction: The Year at Sotheby's 1985-86. New York, 1986: 114-116, fig. 1 (color).
Hevner, Carol Eaton. "Rembrandt Peale's Portraits of His Brother Rubens." Antiques 130 (November 1986): 1010-1013.
1987
Hevner, Carol Eaton. "The Cover." Journal of the American Medical Association 257, no. 15 (17 April 1987): 1996 and color repro., cover.
1988
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 66, no. 10, color repro.
Wilmerding, John. "America's Young Masters: Raphaelle, Rembrandt, and Rubens." In Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Washington, D.C., 1988: 72-93.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 292, color repro.
Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 136-137, color repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 256, repro.
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 222, repro.
Hevner, Carol Eaton. "The Paintings of Rembrandt Peale: Character and Conventions." In Miller, Lillian B. In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1992: 255, 57-60, fig. 22, 160, color pl. 4, 243.
1994
Craven, Wayne. American Art: History and Culture. New York, 1994: 155, color fig. 11.3.
1996
Miller, Lillian B. "The Peale Legacy: The Art of an American Family, 1770-1870." American Art Review 8, no. 6 (1996): repro. 141.
Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin. American Paintings Before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum. London, 1996: no. 597, repro.
Miller, Lillian B., ed. The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy, 1770-1870. Exh. cat. Trust for Museum Exhibitions and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1996: repro. 35, 51-52, 309.
1997
Follensbee, Billie J.A. "Rubens Peale's Spectacles: An Optical Illusion?" Survey of Ophthalmology 41, no. 5 (March-April 1997): 417-424, repro.
Hughes, Robert. _ American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America_. New York, 1997: 106-107, fig. 69.
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: 48-57, color repro.
2002
Solti, Carol. "Rembrandt Peale's Rubens Peale with a Geranium: A Possible Source in David Teniers the Younger." American Art Journal 33, nos. 1 and 2 (2002): 4-19, fig. 1.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 332-333, no. 267, color repro.
2013
Harris, Neil. Capital Culture: J. Carter Brown, the National Gallery of Art, and the Reinvention of the Museum Experience. Chicago and London, 2013: 407.
2015
"Art for the Nation: The Story of the Patrons' Permanent Fund." National Gallery of Art Bulletin, no. 53 (Fall 2015): 2, repro.
2019
Wallach, Alan. "'A Distasteful, Indelicate Subject'." American Art 33, no. 3 (Fall 2019): 29, 30, color fig. 2.
2023
Ramos, Carmen E. "Collecting for the Nation." _Art for the Nation_no. 67 (Fall 2023): 9, fig. 8.
Inscriptions
lower right: Rem Peale / 1801
Wikidata ID
Q20181404