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A young man shown from the waist up behind a tabletop takes up the left half of this vertical portrait, and a geranium in a terracotta pot takes up the right half of the painting. The man has pale, peachy skin and dark brown hair. He wears a pair of glasses with small oval lenses, a white neckcloth, and a brown coat. He looks down and to our left. He holds a second pair of silver-rimmed glasses in his right hand on the table, and his left hand, on our right, rests on the edge of the terracotta pot. The tall, leggy geranium nearly reaches the upper edge of the canvas and has two clusters of small red flowers near its top. The young man and plant are shown against a fawn-brown background. The artist signed and dated the painting in white letters in the lower right corner: “Rem Peale 1801.”

Rubens Peale with a Geranium, 1801

Rembrandt Peale

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 60A

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.

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Charles Willson Peale christened most of his seventeen children after famous artists and scientists; however, there is little consistency between the sons' and daughters' namesakes and their adult careers. While Rembrandt Peale did become a painter and the portraitist of this work, Rubens Peale, who sat for this likeness at the age of seventeen, was a botanist.

Painted in Philadelphia, the work could be described as a double portrait because the geranium, reputed to be the first specimen of this exotic plant ever grown in the New World, is as lovingly portrayed as the painter's brother is. The Peale family often collaborated in their endeavors, and here Rembrandt commemorated his brother's horticultural triumph. Rembrandt's own skill is evident in the clearly defined pools of light on Rubens' cheeks. In a phenomenon familiar to all, his glasses focus the beams passing through them, thereby forming the brighter disks of light under his eyes.

Rubens Peale with a Geranium is a supreme example of the unaffected naturalism which typified the artist's early maturity. Combining firm, clear drawing, carefully modulated color, and an intense devotion to detail, twenty-three-year-old Rembrandt Peale produced an eloquent expression of his family's philosophical orientation.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II, pages 48-57, which is available as a free PDF.

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

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.)

Credit Line

Patrons' Permanent Fund

Accession Number

1985.59.1

Artists / Makers

Rembrandt Peale (artist) American, 1778 - 1860

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Detail Information

Inscription

lower right: Rem Peale / 1801

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

Colton, Jessie Sellers
Copper, James Claypoole
Esty, Mildred Colton
Fleischman, Lawrence A.
Kennedy Galleries
Kennedy Galleries
Peale, Albert Charles
Peale, Mary Jane
Sotheby's
Woolworth, Pauline E.

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: 19th Century America: Paintings and Sculpture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, no. 2, repro.

1970: The American Painting Collection of Mrs. Norman B. Woolworth, Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, 1970, no. 87, 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, (shown only in Philadelphia).

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: Adams, William Howard, ed. The Eye of Thomas Jefferson. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1976: 346, no. 600, repro.

1976: From Seed to Flower: Philadelphia, 1681-1876; A Horticultural Point of View. Exh. cat. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Philadelphia, 1976: 24, repro. 27.

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. "Rembrandt Peale's Portraits of His Brother Rubens." Antiques 130 (November 1986): 1010-1013.

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).

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.

1988: 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: Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 136-137, color repro.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 292, color repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 256, repro.

1992: 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.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 222, repro.

1994: Craven, Wayne. American Art: History and Culture. New York, 1994: 155, color fig. 11.3.

1996: Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin. American Paintings Before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum. London, 1996: no. 597, repro.

1996: 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.

1996: Miller, Lillian B. "The Peale Legacy: The Art of an American Family, 1770-1870." American Art Review 8, no. 6 (1996): repro. 141.

1997: Follensbee, Billie J.A. "Rubens Peale's Spectacles: An Optical Illusion?" Survey of Ophthalmology 41, no. 5 (March-April 1997): 417-424, repro.

1997: 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.