USA > Maryland > Biographical sketches of distinguished Marylanders > Part 9
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artist whose pictures were as yet unpainted, did not sit with clasped hands gazing on the cloudless sky, but preferred, like other little boys and girls of more ordi- nary cast, to dabble in the gutter or shape mud-pies. This sister, to whom Mr. Peale addresses himself, was held very near to his heart. She married the Reverend Joseph Digby, and in another letter he congratulates her upon "her spouse being made rector of St. Mary's, Stamford, in Lincolnshire."
Mr. Charles Peale died in Chestertown, Maryland, in the year 1750. He left a widow and five children; the eldest, Charles Wilson, whose birth is thus recorded in Saint Paul's Parish, Queen Anne county : "Charles Wil- son, eldest son of Charles Peale, and heir intail to the Manor of Wotten, in Oxfordshire, estate of Charles Wil- son, Doctor of Medicine." The other children were as follows: Margaret Jane, St. George, Elizabeth Digby, and James. Not long after the death of her husband, Mrs. Peale moved to Annapolis, and Charles Wilson, who was then in his ninth year, was placed at school. Yet, before he had reached his thirteenth year, the " heir intail to the Manor of Wotten " was apprenticed to a saddler. While following his calling his genius grad- ually developed; he gained a fair knowledge of mechanics, a habit of industry and early rising, which he retained through the days of his life. Under the assistance of Mr. James Tilghman, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, he established himself as a saddler, and in this capacity developed so decidedly his taste for the fine arts, that he won the admiration of influential friends. A late writer says: "He was instructed in painting by Hesselius, a German painter, to whom he gave a saddle for the priv- ilege of seeing him paint.". Funds were placed at his disposal that he might go at once to England and study with Benjamin West. The money was to be repaid
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upon his return, with the native gold of his genius. The gentlemen who gave their generous trust were the staunch men of the period, Mr. J. B. Boardly (who had been educated by Mr. Charles Peale), Barrister Carroll, Governor Sharpe. Daniel Dulany, Robert Lloyd, Ben- jamin Tasker, Thomas Ringgold, Benjamin Calvert, Thomas Sprigg, Daniel, of St. Thomas, and Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. He sailed away from his native shores in 1768 and returned in June, 1770.
After laboring for several years he was enabled " to pay off all his debts but those of gratitude." He had promised to paint pictures for his benefactors, and his promise was fulfilled. At the beginning of the Revolu- tion against the mother-land, Mr. Peale took his family to Charlestown, at the head of the Chesapeake bay. In the winter of 1776 he visited Philadelphia, and in the month of May following, he removed his family thither from Charlestown, and made his home in the Quaker city. This decision was doubtless owing to praise and encour- agement received, after the painting of several portraits, while on a visit to Philadelphia. In 1772 he painted a portrait of George Washington in the uniform of a Vir- ginia colonel. This picture was at Arlington, the home of General Robert E. Lee, for many years, until the war be- tween the North and the South. In Tuckerman's " Book of Artists" is the following, in regard to this picture : " The earliest portraits of Washington are more inter- esting, perhaps, as memorials, than as works of art; and we can easily imagine that associations endeared them to his old comrades. The dress-blue coat, scarlet facings and underclothes-of the first portrait by Peale, and the youthful face, make it suggestive of the early experience of the future commander, when, exchanging the surveyor's implements for the colonel's commission, he bivouacked in the wilderness of Ohio, the leader of a
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motley band of hunters, provincials and savages, to confront wily Frenchmen, cut forest roads, and encoun- ter all the perils of Indian ambush, inclement skies, un- disciplined followers, famine and woodland skirmish.
" It recalls his calm authority and providential escape amid the dismay of Braddock's defeat, and his pleasant sensation at the first whistling of bullets in the weary march to Fort Necessity. To Charles Wilson Peale we owe this precious relic of the chieftain's youth."
With the first encroachments upon our liberties by England, the staunch patriotism of Peale was revealed. His earliest contributions to the cause was the design- ing and painting of emblematical insignias to be used in public displays at Newburyport in New England. Upon the mustering of the militia in Philadelphia, he was created lieutenant of one of the companies. By his energy he soon filled the ranks. This stranger from Maryland was then placed at its head as commander, and he led his company into the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He was brave and self-sacrificing, thinking only of his country's need, however stern the demands made upon him. He was selected as one of fifty who were chosen to remove the public stores from the city of Philadelphia, to prevent their capture by the enemy. Hle was one of six persons deputed to secure those who were suspected of disloyalty, or else to obtain their parole. He was also one of three whose duty was to take possession of or sell confiscated estates. During his life in camp he did not cease to be an artist, but was faithful to his love through all changes. Hle snatched from the surrounding beauties of natural scenery subjects for landscapes, perfected in after days ; and from the faces gathered about him he secured por- traits which are now numbered amongst our most valuable possessions.
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At his death he left a collection of original portraits and historical scenes numbering two hundred and sixty-nine.
At Annapolis, in the Chamber of the House of Delegates, i's a full length portrait of General Wash- ington holding in his hand the articles of capitulation at Yorktown. Before him passes the Continental army in review. General Washington is attended by his Aids-de-camp, General La Fayette and Colonel Tilgh- man.
The portraits of the Governors of Maryland, which were painted and exchanged for the portrait of Lord Baltimore, were Johnson, Paca, Smallwood, Howard, Stone and Sprigg.
The famous picture of Washington, before referred. to, was finished at Princeton, although its beginning is of much earlier date. Congress having adjourned with- out making an appropriation for its purchase, it re- mained in the possession of the artist. At the request of General La Fayette, the artist executed a copy of this painting designed for the King of France. It was finished and sent to Paris in 1779, but owing to the trouble in which the royal family was at the time in- volved, it was sold, and purchased by the Count de Menou. Don Juan Marrailes, the Minister of France, ordered several copies to be made about the same time. Some considerable opposition to General Washington as a military chief having been evinced in various quarters, the following query under the head of " Political and Military," appeared in the Maryland Journal of July the 6th, 1779 :
" Whether, therefore, when Mons. Gerard and Don Juan de Marrailes, sent over to their respective courts the pictures of his Excellency, General Washington, at full length, by Mr. Peale, there would have been any
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impropriety in sending over, at the same time, at least a couple of little heads of Gates and Arnold, by M. de Simitierre?" These vain thrusts did not, however, de- prive the army of its head.
Mr. Tuckerman says: "There is a tradition in the Peale family, honorably represented through several generations, by public spirit and artistic gifts, that in- telligence of one of the most important triumphs of the American arms was received by Washington in a de- spatch he opened while sitting to Wilson Peale for a miniature intended for his wife, who was present;" and then, "of the fourteen portraits by Peale, that exhibiting Washington as a Virginia colonel in the colonial force of Great Britain, is the only entire portrait before the Revolution extant. One was painted for the college of New Jersey, at Princeton, in 1780, to occupy a frame in which a poitrait of George III had been destroyed by a cannon-ball during a battle at that place on the 3d of January, 1778. Peale's last portrait of Washington, executed in 1783, he retained until his death."
The only cabinet portraits of Washington, painted by Peale, that are known to exist, are two in the city of Washington; one in the possession of Admiral Kilty, of the United States Navy. This picture was painted for the father of Admiral Kilty, while George Washing- ton was President of the United States. It is painted in oil colors, a three quarter face, the dress that of a citizen, whose elegance and simplicity of taste belong to the ideal gentleman. The other cabinet painting is in the possession of Mr. Henry Randall, of Washington city.
Mr. Peale having been elected to the Assembly of the city of Philadelphia, was one of the main movers for the passage of the Act for gradual abolition of slavery.
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The world of politics was not, however, suited to the taste of Mr. Peale, and he desired to withdraw into greater retirement for the purpose of pursuing his natural profession. No opportunity had in any case been lost, however, where a miniature or sketch could be secured of an eminent individual. Thus Mr. Peale laid the first foundation of a national gallery. Upon the meeting of the Congress at Philadelphia, new sub- jects were offered to his genius, and he has left on can- vas able representations of those whose names occupy prominent places in history. In this country, in Canada and in the West Indies, many homes are adorned with the paintings of Charles Wilson Peale. Many of his paintings were also sent to Europe. For the space of fifteen years, he was without a rival in this country, for Trumbull and Stuart were but little known when Peale was at the topmost height of his success. A Museum of Natural History was also established by Mr. Peale. This was the first scientific institution in the United States ; as an educator of the people, and a general dis- tributor of valuable knowledge, it was a national bene- faction. After a brief illness, the death of Charles Wilson Peale occurred on the 22nd of February, 1827. He was in the eighty-sixth year of his age when he · passed into rest from a life of incessant labor. His friend Trumbull, the artist, said of him "that he pos- sessed a high claim to the esteem and remembrance of his countrymen, not only owing to his talents, but be- cause he was a mild, benevolent and good man." The ardor and impulse of youth seemed never to desert him entirely, for he threw into whatever work he undertook, the whole interest and force of his spirit. That great man, Thackeray, has written: "The muse of painting is a lady whose social station is not altogether recog- nized with us as yet. The polite world permits a gentle-
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man to amuse himself with her, but to take her for better or for worse! Forsake all other chances, and cleave unto her! To assume her name! Many a re- spectable person would be as much shocked at the notion as if his son had married an opera-dancer."
And yet, Charles Wilson Peale was married three times : his first wife being Miss Rachel Brewer, of An- napolis, Maryland; then followed Miss Elizabeth De Peyster, of New York, and Miss Hannah Moore, of Pennsylvania. Four daughters and seven sons survived him. The accompanying account of the portrait of Lord Baltimore, is from the pen of Mr. Titian Ramsay Peale, a son of the artist whose life is given in the pre- ceding pages :
HISTORY OF THE PORTRAIT OF CECILIUS CALVERT, SECOND LORD BALTIMORE.
In the "Annals of Annapolis," published in 1841, by David Ridgely, he says: "Anne Arundel county, probably so-called on 6th of April, 1850, from the maiden name of Lady Baltimore, then late deceased, Lady Anne Arundel, the daughter of Lord Arundel of Wardour, whom Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, had married. "In 1683, it was constituted a town, port, and place of trade, under the name of the town land at Proctors.
" In 1694, it was constituted a town, port, and place of trade, under the name of Anne Arundel town."
In 1702, Queen Anne ascended the throne.
In 1703, the town of Anne Arundel, being incorpo- rated as a city, received the name of Ann-apolis, in honor of the Queen. The Queen had Sir Godfrey Kneller, the court painter of that day, paint her portrait, and sent it, with the portrait of Cecilius, Second Lord Balti- more, and founder of the Province of Maryland, a gift to the city of Annapolis, in recognition of the compli- ment of naming the city after her.
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In 1704, a portrait of Queen Anne, and one of Lord Baltimore, full length, are mentioned as decorating the Assembly room at Annapolis.
The Queen's portrait disappeared about the time of the Revolution, when there was little respect for royalty or for royal gifts, and nothing has ever been heard of it; it was probably destroyed.
Lord Baltimore's portrait was left undisturbed until the State House needed renovating in 1823, when the massive oak frame had become so defective, from the ravages of worms, that it swayed at one corner, and the dust and lamp-smoke of one hundred and twenty years had so discolored the picture, that it was no longer an attractive object, and it was put out of sight.
Charles Wilson Peale was born in Maryland in 1741, and lived in Annapolis from the time he was nine years old until quite middle life. This portrait of Lord Baltimore, by Vandyke, was his admiration as long as he lived there-returning in after years for renewed pleasure in seeing it-was surprised and indignant to find this fine picture, with its deeply interesting his- torical associations, thrust in a dark lumber-room, where, among old joists and broken beams, it would soon have been destroyed. He chided them for this slight to the Founder of their State. Their answer was, they had rather have their present Governor than any old founder ; and his answer, that he would give all the Governors they ever had for it. They-the Aldermen-at once caught at what they considered an offer,-made a list of the Governors since the Revolution. Judge Brewer wished and urged him to take the picture to save it.
Mr. Peale went to Baltimore. His Autobiography says: " Before leaving Baltimore he wrote to his friend, Mr. Nicholas Brewer, wishing him to take upon him- self the trouble to inquire if the corporation of the
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city would take six portraits of the Governors elected into that office since the Revolution, for a whole length portrait of Lord Baltimore, which is in the ball-room (the place it was known as hanging), and perhaps not much regarded. The commencing a collection of por- traits, which probably will be continued, by adding the portraits of the living Governors in succession, will in a future day become very interesting, and he would find a pleasure to be the author of the beginning of such a work. After his return to Philadel- phia he received a letter from his friend Mr. Brewer, with the order of the honorable Board of the Corpora- tion accepting his offer, and also giving orders for the picture to be sent as directed " From Baltimore he writes to Dr. Casine, Washington, June 12, 1824 :
"By direction of the Honorable the Corporation of Annapolis, I have to paint a portrait of my friend, the former Governor of Maryland, Col. Stone. Gen. Smith informs me that you married a daughter of Governor Stone-hence I am led to hope that you possess the likeness which I am very desirous to hand down to posterity in a collection of portraits of the Governors of Maryland elected since the Revolution. I have now finished four of them, i. e., Johnson, Paca, Smallwood, and Col. Howard. In the order I had from the corpo- ration, was the name of Henry, but unfortunately no portrait was made of him, which his son now greatly regrets. If you possess the portrait in question, and will permit me to make a copy of it, I shall be very thankful." June 15, he writes to his son Rembrandt: "Yesterday I received a letter from Dr. Casine, of Washington ; he says he has a portrait painted by you of Governor Stone, which he is so obliging as to lend me, and would send to Baltimore if I required it. But my determination is to go to Washington by to-mor-
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row's stage, and shall have this advantage if I choose to use it; that is, taking the portrait of Gov. Sprigg, who resides a short distance from Washington. I shall write to Mr. Jno. Lee, in which case I may take the stage from Washington to Fredericktown, and make a copy, if such portrait can be had."
The Autobiography says: "Having finished and varnished the portraits, he prepared to go to Annapolis in the steamboat. After dining, he told Mr. Brewer that he had brought the six portraits which he had finished for the corporation, and if it would be agreeable to him, to let them be put into his spare parlor, in order to show to the members of the corporation by invitation, in the morning ; this favor was readily granted. Before breakfast, he unpacked and placed them in regular order, then went to Mr. Boyle's, who is Mayor of the city, to acquaint him that he had finished his engagement, if the corporation would be satisfied with the two portraits he had painted instead of Gov. Lee and Gov. Henry, of whom no por- traits had been made. Mr. Boyle came to see the pictures ; said he would give notice to the corporation to meet in the evening, to whom I drew up a short address, June 28, 1824. Went to Mr. Nicholas Brewer, Jr., to dine and spend the afternoon ; returning in the evening, Mr. Boyle told him the corporation had accepted his paintings."
In a letter dated Philadelphia, January 16, 1824, Mr. Peale says: "I have taken the mastic varnish from the Baltimore portrait. I expected to get much lampblack by washing, as it must have been much smoked by the candles in the ball-room. Simply washing with cold water brings away very little of it, and whether Iought to use other means is rather doubtful. Rembrandt has a pamphlet directing the French method of cleaning
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pictures ; when I have perused it, I shall proceed with the work."
To his eldest son, Raphaelle, he writes from Phila- delphia, February, 1824 : " I have finished the cleaning; and repairing Lord Baltimore; it now only wants varnishing. It is a highly finished picture. Rem- brandt and some others think it was painted by Sir Godfry Kneller; be it whom it may, it is certainly a well-finished picture, and I am satisfied with my bargain."
"This letter tells of the first questioning of the artist of this fine old picture. The impression was received from the well-known fact, that Sir Godfry Kneller painted Queen Anne's portrait, as it is in all the lists of crowned heads he painted, and being sent with hers by the Queen, the conclusion was drawn one hundred and twenty years after it came to the country that the same artist painted both.
"Sir Godfry Kneller was born in 1648; was twenty- seven when Lord Baltimore died in 1675, aged seventy -he could only have known and represented him as a man of nearly seventy. Queen Anne was born in 1664; was eleven years old when Lord Baltimore died-too young for her to have his portrait painted-while the Queen could not have had the royal crown picture surmounting the arms, as in 1691 the King, by an arbitrary act, deprived Charles, Third Lord Baltimore, of his political rights as Proprietor, which were not restored until 1715, the year after Queen Anne's death.
" Mr. Peale could never be satisfied that the portrait was not a Vandyke; he had been told so as a boy and never heard it questioned ; yet he did not combat the opinion of younger men, which is to be regretted. as it gave the impression to those who saw it at that time it was a Kneller. If he had taken time from his busy
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life to compare dates and events, he would have found his early memory correct. Mr. Peale had known the picture seventy years, when he became the possessor of it in 1824, fifty years ago, (in 1874).
"The picture is one of embarkation. As soon as the grant was obtained-20th June, 1632-Cecil Calvert commenced bis preparation for the establishment of a colony. The charter made the Proprietor absolute Lord of the Province, with the royalties of a Count Palatine. The royal grant was given on condition that two Indian arrows of those parts should be delivered at Windsor Castle every year, on Tuesday in Easter week, and also the fifth of all the gold and silver which might be found in the Province. The quiver on the ground at the right of the picture, is filled with Indian arrows ready for the tribute, while the spare arrow and the bow lying across it, show the means of keeping it full. The quiver is covered with fish skin, the war- club near it is made of the beak of the saw-fish-pro- ducts of Chesapeake bay-and the Baltimore colours draped over them from the base of a drum, shows that all is under the Baltimore rule. At the left of the picture an Indian is dimly seen, a native of the Prov- ince. Lord Baltimore stands in the centre of the picture, in a position of commanding dignity, pointing with his baton to 'the good ship, the Ark, of three hundred tons and upward, which was attended by his Lordship's Pinnace, called the Dove, of about fifty tons,' in which, with his colonists, he was about to em- bark for his new possession. On the lower drapery of the sofa, before which he stands, are the Baltimore arms, which have the supporters of the Province on either side, a ploughman, and a fisherman, surmounted by the royal crown of England-the privilege alone of a Count Palatinate-showing he rules with royal authority.
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" After making preparation, deeming that the interest of the enterprise demanded his remaining in England, he confided his colony to his next younger brother, Leonard, as Governor, then in his twenty-sixth year, who embarked from Cowes, Isle of Wight, 22nd of November, 1633. The picture must have been painted between the 20th of June, 1632, when the patent was issued to Cecilius, then twenty-eight, and 22nd of November, 1633, when the colonists sailed.
"Sir Antony Van Dyke was at court painting the portrait of King Charles I. At that time Lord Balti- · more was preparing to embark for the Province the King had given him, naming it after his Queen, show- ing him to be a favorite at court, circumstances that would most likely lead to the painting of his portrait by Vandyke, the artist at court. The event pictured fixes the date as not later than 1633, which would make it two hundred and forty-one years old in 1874.
"In part third of Smith's Catalogue Raisonæ of the works of Dutch, Flemish and French Painters ; London, 1831 or 38, (two editions); on page 182, under the head of Vandyke, is 'portrait of Anne, daughter of Lord Arundel, and wife of Cecil Calvert,' Lord Baltimore. Anne Arundel, Lord Baltimore's wife, died in 1649, aged thirty-four. As Vandyke died 1641, her portrait was probably painted when Lord Baltimore's was, in 1633, and his lost sight of, no doubt, having been out of the country one hundred and thirty-four years when this list was made in London, in 1838. The original must have been sent, as there is no mention of Cecil Calvert's, Lord Baltimore, portrait in any of the lists, though there is of his wife; and Lord Baltimore's is mentioned as being in Annapolis in 1704.
"Few old pictures can be so well authenticated as this, having changed hands but three times, from the
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Queen to Annapolis, from Annapolis to Charles Wilson l'eale, by Act of Council (which of course is on record), in payment for pictures painted for them (portraits of several of their Governors), in whose family it has been ever since; his last surviving child and youngest son, Titian Ramsay Peale, being the possessor.
"In 1868, Mr. Franklin Peale had the picture backed with new canvas, superintending with great care, and assisting himself. The picture is in excellent preser- vation."
The picture referred to has been sent to Boston (December, 1874), and placed with the Mont Pensier collection, with a view to its sale. Among the numer- ous relics in which the Centennial movement seems to have awakened an interest, is one in possession of the Lotus Club, of New York city. It is a double-faced medallion, framed in pure gold, adorned with the minia- tures of General George Washington and his wife, Martha. The paintings are executed upon ivory, ac- cording to the style of that period. The artist, Charles Wilson Peale, painted the miniature-portrait of George Washington, during the siege of Boston, and afterward presented the picture to General Washington. During the first presidential term of Washington, the portrait of Mrs. Martha Washington was painted; the two pic- tures were then enclosed in the same case, with a piece of the hair of Washington and his wife, and presented by the first President of the United States to his sister, Mrs. Betty Lewis. Upon the death of Mrs. Lewis, her daughter, Mrs. Carter, became the possessor of this valuable relic. From Mrs. Carter, the miniatures passed into the hands of Mr. John H. Patterson, the son of Mrs. Eleanor Carter Patterson, the grandson of Mrs. Carter, and the great grandson of Mrs. Betty Lewis. This Mis. Betty Lewis was the mother of Lawrence Lewis, who married Miss Nelly Custis.
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