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George Washington
Rembrandt Peale1859
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Details
- Title: George Washington
- Creator: Rembrandt Peale
- Date Created: 1859
- Physical 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.)
- 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).
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on canvas
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