John Parke Custis and Martha Washington

Status

Not on view

DateA: c. 1774; B: c. 1795

Artist Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741 - 1827)

Artist Unknown

Subject John Parke Custis (American, 1754 - 1781)

Subject Martha Washington (American, 1731 - 1802)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueWatercolor on ivory, gold

DimensionsOverall including clasp: 2 5/16 in. x 1 3/4 in. x 7/16" (5.72 cm x 4.45 cm x 1.11 cm) Sight (John Parke Custis): 1 5/8 in. x 1 3/8 in. Sight (Martha Washington): 1 6/8 in. x 1 1/2 in.

Credit LineGift of Katherine Merle-Smith Thomas, 2010

Object numberW-4904

DescriptionA: Oval, bust-length polychrome on ivory portrait of John "Jacky" Parke Custis on green-gray ground. The subject is shown 1/4 turned and gazing out toward the viewer. He has dark wavy chin-length hair with closely cropped bangs, a pensive expression and polychromatic blue and hazel eyes with white highlights which seem to reflect the light in very naturalistic fashion. Subtle shading at the chin suggests a dimple. He wears a deep royal blue coat with a large gold button, a buff waistcoat embellished with decorative floral embroidery and cloth buttons, and white lace jabot. The picture is lit from the (proper) right, and a shadow is cast across the face at (proper) left.

B: This bust-length oval miniature, painted in polychrome watercolors, depicts Martha Washington as an older woman, with a slightly furrowed brow. She wears a dark blue dress only partly visible through a sheer white lace fichu which covers her neck and chest entirely. Her white hair is shown swept up and back, revealing a high forehead, and elaborately crowned with a mob cap composed of three differentiated tiers of white lace. Mrs. Washington is shown nearly frontally, with a very slight turn to the (proper) right, and one ear visible at (proper) left. Her eyes gaze toward the (proper) left, and at close examination it is apparent they are portrayed in different colors—the eye at (proper) left has been variegated with blue, much like the eyes in the obverse portrait of Jacky Custis it is framed with. The overall painting is very fine, and the face is composed of a network of fine and cross-hatched lines, with blue shading on the (proper) left temple, and a suggestion of a double chin. The exceedingly flat chocolate-colored ground is very noticeably unvariegated and undetailed, particularly amid the expanses of white lace in the costume.

Published ReferencesCharles Coleman Sellers, Art of Charles Willson Peale (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia: 1969), 58-59.

“George Washington Relics,” Baltimore Sun, February 16, 1958, 5.

Charles Coleman Sellers, Portraits and Minatures by Charles Willson Peale (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia: 1952), 59-61.

Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, volume 3 (New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1951), 263.

Edmund Law Rogers,"Some New Washington Relics, from the Collection of Edmund Law Rogers," Century Magazine XL (May 1890): 22-25.

“Relics of George Washington,” Baraboo Republic, Baraboo, Wisconsin, April 28, 1875.

____ “News Items Concerning the Charity Art Exposition,” Baltimore American & Commercial Advertiser, Baltimore, Maryland, January 29, 1874. ____ [4, column 6].

Regarding Peale's portraits of John Parke Custis:

Charles Moore, The Family Life of George Washington (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926), 55. [perhaps a copy of this work]

Stephen Decatur, Jr., The Private Affairs of George Washington (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1933), 240.

Charles Moore, The Family Life of George Washington (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926), 55.

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