George Washington
"But when it is known and recollected that his Aspect was as Noble as his Conduct, and that his countenance corresponded with his character, it is impossible to suppress a patriotic and natural desire to behold an impressive Image of his Countenance." - Rembrandt Peale, Washington (1826)
Rembrandt Peale first painted George Washington in 1795 when he was only seventeen years old. Almost thirty years later, the artist reworked his life portrait into what he called his "Standard National Likeness," or George Washington, Patriae Pater, which depicted Washington in a stonework oval or "porthole." Peale vigorously promoted this image over the next three decades, executing at least 75 replicas and several prints of it. By popularizing his "perfect representation" of Washington to icon status, Peale - an advocate of physiognomy or the idea external appearances revealed one's true character - believed succeeding generations of Americans would be enlightened by and elevated to Washington's great nobleness.
He wears a white jabot and buff-colored waistcoat under a dark navy coat with buff-colored facings and gold epaulettes, with three stars on each side, and dark gilt coat buttons. The background has cream-colored clouds at top and dark grey clouds below, with those at lower proper left tinged red-orange. The portrait is lit from the upper proper right, but there is an overall glow which extends to the edge of the stonework framing device.
The painting is in a 19th century gilt wood frame, decorated at the top with a laurel crown, and garlands of acorns and oak leaves, and on the sides with fasces, and at the bottom with a decorative embellishment.
SignedSigned at lower proper right front of canvas, in dark brown paint: "Rembrandt Peale."
Published ReferencesWendy Bellion, Citizen Spectator: Art, Illusion, and Visual Perception in Early National America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 296-327. (General Reference)
Carol Borchert Cadou. The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), ill. fig. 1, 262.
Lillian B. Miller, Ed. The Selected Papers of Charles Wilson Peale and His Family, Vol. 4 (New Haven: Published for The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, by Yale University Press, 1996), 385-386. (General Reference.)
Lillian B. Miller and Carol Eaton Hevner, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860 (Washington, D.C.: The National Portrait Gallery, 1992), 31-3, 142-8, 155, 174, 196-7, 216, 222, 231, 277, 279-82. (General Reference.)
Carol Eaton Hevner, Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts (Philadelphia: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1985), pp. 26, 32-3, 66-7, 82, 88-9, 104-5, 110.) (General Reference.)
John A. Mahey, “The Studio of Rembrandt Peale,” The American Art Journal, Vol. 1: 2, (Autumn 1969), 20-39. (General Reference)
“Mt. Vernon Gets Peale Portrait,” The Washington Post, 10 February 1957.
“Portrait of Washington Willed to Mount Vernon,” The Sunday Star (Washington, D.C.), 10 February 1957.
John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas (Lancaster, PA: Lancaster Press, 1931), 368-381. (General Reference)
Gustavus A. Eisen, Portraits of Washington, Vol. 1 (New York: Robert Hamilton, 1932), 312. (General Reference)
"Rembrandt Peale on Washington," The Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser, 6 November 1858. (General Reference)
