History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 46

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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This was a very fine picture, but about the same time Rembrandt completed another portrait of Wash- ington, which he considered his greatest work. This was the picture-purchased by the United States in 1832 and placed in the capitol-in which the hero is represented in senatorial costume. Rembrandt, in his autobiography, speaking of this picture, says that, commencing with the original portrait of Wash- ington, painted by him from life in 1792, he was still dissatisfied, as well with his own work as with the existing portraits of Washington, those by C. W. Peale, Pine, Wertmuller, and Stuart. He made six- teen attempts to paint this likeness. "I determined, in 1823, to make a last effort, and under an excitement even beyond the 'poetic frenzy' which controlled me during the three months to the exclusion of every other thought, and to the grief of my father, who considered it a hopeless effort, I succeeded to his conviction." Before its purchase by Congress, Rem- brandt Peale's Washington was exhibited in vari- ous cities of the United States, and taken by the artist himself to Europe, in 1829, when it was exhibited in Naples, Rome, Florence, Paris, and London.

Rembrandt Peale painted and exhibited in Phila- delphia a large pieture of " Napoleon on Horseback," " The Death of Virginia," " Lysippa on the Rock," and many other pictures, landscapes, and portraits. His "Jupiter and Io," which he painted in 1813, was not publiely exhibited, owing to the figures being partly nude ; it was made the subject of a special ex- hibition, and received the praise of the connoisseurs who visited it. After an absence of about ten years in Baltimore, Mr. Peale returned to Philadelphia in De- cember, 1823, and resumed the practice of his profes- sion at his old gallery on Swanwiek Street. During the winter of 1859-60 he lectured in the principal eities on the portraits of Washington. He published " Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth," in 1803 ; " Notes on Italy," in 1831 ; " Portfolio of an Artist," in 1839; " Biography of C. W. Peale ;" " Reminis- cences of Art and Artists ;" and a small treatise on elementary drawing, entitled "Graphies," in 1845. lIe contributed to the Cincinnati Literary Gazette in 1824. He died in Philadelphia, Oct. 3, 1860.

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Rapbael Peale, the first-born son of Charles Wilson Peale, came out as a portrait-painter, in oil and minia- ture, in 1800. He was not very successful in his pro- fession, for while, in 1804, his prices were,-portraits in oil, fifty dollars, and miniature portraits, painted on vellum paper, ten dollars, in 1811' and later he offered to paint portraits in oil for fifteen dollars ; in crayon, and miniatures on ivory, ten dollars : and profiles, colored, on ivory paper, as low as three dol- lars. He paid considerable attention, however, to paintings from still life, and was eminently successful in this particular branch of the painter's art, which Dunlap says "he was the first, in point of time, to adopt in America." Many of Raphael Peale's pic- tures of fruit, game, and fishes have been preserved in the collections of amateurs, and are highly prized. He died in Philadelphia, March 4, 1825.

Titian, the fourth son of C. W. Peale, seems to have turned his attention almost entirely to the drawing and painting of subjects connected with natural his- tory. He drew the figures of birds engraved in the first volume of Bonaparte's " American Ornithology," and a part of those in the fourth volume. His first pictures on exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts, in 1821, were water-color drawings of buffaloes, striped squirrels, Missouri bears, butterflies, etc.

Another branch of the Peale family has also pro- duced several artists. James Peale, a brother of Charles Wilson Peale, who persuaded him to give up his trade and study painting, became quite a respectable portrait-painter. He essayed his skill on some works of more importance, and was quite suc- cessful. In 1811 he painted a picture representing " A Rencontre between Col. Allen McLane and Two British Horsemen," which occurred during the Revo- lution, near Philadelphia. This painting was for many years an ornament of Peale's Museum. One of his most ambitious works was a full-length portrait of Washington. He also painted "A View of the Battle of Princeton." In 1818 he painted " A View of Belfield Farm, near Germantown," the country-seat of his brother. James Peale died in 1823.

His daughter, Miss Anna C. Peale, exhibited her first picture-a fruit piece-in 1811. She devoted her attention for some years to painting still-life subjects, but afterward took to miniature painting. She painted miniature portraits of the French Gen. Lallemand ; also of the " celebrated Albiness," Miss Hervey, President James Monroe, Maj .- Gen. Jackson (1819), James Peale (1820), and Commodore Bainbridge, of the United States navy.

Another daughter, Miss Maria Peale, commenced to paint vegetables and still-life subjects about 1810. It does not appear that she attempted portrait- painting.

Miss Sarah M. Peale, still another daughter of James, made herself known in 1816 as a painter of flowers. Still-life subjects-peaches, grapes, musk- melons, jelly, and cake-were exhibited by her in

1819. Afterward she took to painting portraits in oil. In 1820 she executed a portrait of the Rev. William Ward, missionary to Serampore, and one of Comnio- dore Bainbridge in 1822. In 1825 Lafayette accorded her four sittings. Miss Peale afterward removed to Baltimore and Washington, where she painted the portraits of many senators, congressmen, and others.

James Peale, Jr., also followed his father's profes- sion, but does not appear to have given any attention to portrait painting. A view of High Street bridge, by this artist, was hung up in the exhibition-room of the Columbian Society of Artists in 1813. Very soon after this first production of his pencil he painted a view of an engagement near Pernambuco between the privateer schooner "Cornet," Capt. Boyle, of Balti- more, and a Portuguese sloop-of-war and three vessels under her convoy; "View of Germantown" (1820), " View of Water Gap and breaking away of a Storm" (1824), " Fairmount Water-Works" (1824).

Pierre Eugène Du Simitière, already mentioned in these pages as a collector of curiosities and a writer, was also a painter of some talent, and practiced his profession in the city from 1760 to his death, in 1788. He was the designer of the frontispiece of the United States Magazine, published in 1779, and of an alle- gorical vignette for the Pennsylvania Magazine (1775), representing the Goddess of Liberty, etc. He painted a portrait of Silas Deane, which was engraved by B. Reading, London, in 1783. Shortly after the Decla- ration of Independence, Du Simitière was employed by a committee of Congress, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, to furnish designs for a seal for the new republic. After several consultations with the committee, each mem- ber of which had his own idea of a suitable subject, the following device was thought satisfactory : The shield, with six quarterings, was charged with the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the harp of Ireland, the lily of France, the black eagle of Ger- many, and the crowned red lion of Holland, these being allusions to the different nations by which America was peopled. Du Simitière proposed, as supporters, the Goddess of Liberty, with the pole and cap, and an American rifleman, with a rifle and tomahawk. Over the shield was the All-Seeing Eye. Motto, "Bello vel pare." Franklin desired to propose a device of Moses lifting his wand and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh and his host overwhelmed in the waters. Adams proposed the choice of Hercules between Virtue and Pleasure. Jefferson suggested the children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and on the other side effigies of Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon chiefs, whose political principles were claimed to be the foundation of the system of government of the United States. Jefferson was desired to combine these ideas, and he did so by adopting the shield and quarterings of Du Simitière. The supporters were the Goddess of Liberty wearing a corselet of armor,

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

and holding the spear and liberty-cap, and the God- dess of Justice, with sword and balance. Crest, the All-Seeing Eye in a radiant triangle. Motto, "E pluribus unum." The borders of the shield were formed by thirteen white escutcheons, linked to- gether by a golden chain, and bearing the initials of the thirteen States. The device on the reverse was to be Pharaoh attempting to follow the Israelites through the Red Sea. The motto, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Congress took no action on this project when it was reported, in 1776, and a new committee was appointed in 1779, to report a design for a seal. Du Simitière proposed the fol- lowing : The shield-bow, thirteen diagonal stripes, alternate red and white ; crest, a radiant constellation of thirteen stars; supporters, Peace with the olive- branch, a mailed warrior with sword; the support- ers holding over the shield

a linked chain. Motto, "Bello vel pace." Reverse, the Goddess of Liberty, seated. Motto, “ Virtute perennis."

This design was not adop- ted; another design, fur- nished in the succeeding year by William Barton, was not more satisfactory. Finally, the present device of the seal was adopted; it was sent to the President of the United States by John Adams, and is said to have been designed by Sir John Prestwich, baronet, of the west of England, an accom- plished antiquarian, and a friend to America during the Revolution.

Du Simitière painted miniatures in water-colors, and, had many of his por- traits engraved in Paris, among them Washington, Arnold, Silas Deane, Gates, Laurens, Huntington, Morris, Steuben, Charles Thomson, Gerard, and Jo- seph Reed. He was an ardent patriot and a well- informed man, and collected materials for a history of the American Revolution.

Thomas Spence Duche, son of the Rev. Jacob Duché, rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's, was born in Philadelphia about 1766. He went to London with his father, when the latter left Philadelphia (during the British occupation of the city in 1777-78), and studied painting with West. Very little is known of his life, but such of his works as have been brought to this country are evidences of his fine artistic talent. Hle painted a portrait of Bishop Seabury, of Connec- ticut, while the latter was in London, in 1783. The original of this picture, well known from Sharpe's

ROBERT FULTON.

engraving of it, is now at Washington College, Hart- ford, Conn. A portrait of Bishop Provoost, of New York, which is in possession of the family of the late Cadwallader Colden, an " Infant Saviour," and two pieces for publie charities, are also the productions of Mr. Duché's peneil.

Robert Fulton, who was to acquire undying fame as the introducer of the steamboat, began life as a por- trait-painter in Philadelphia, in the year 1782; he was then seventeen years old, having been born in Little Britain, Lancaster Co., in 1765. As a boy he had shown great attachment to mechanics as well as a fondness for drawing and painting, and it is likely that he adopted the latter as a profession because it would bring immediate pecuniary returns, for he was poor and without friends. Yet, he managed by un- tiring industry to save enough in four years to pur- chase a small farm in Pennsylvania, where he established his widowed mother. The good son, having thus secured his parent against possible want, felt free to seek that improvement in his pro- fession which would give him fame, for he could not but see that his pictures lacked the artistic touch which well-directed stndies alone would enable him to give them. He went to England to seek instruc- tion from Benjamin West, -- the Polar Star toward which all young American artists turned. "That Mr. West justly appreciated the character of his young countryman," says Mr. Dunlap, "is attested by his presenting him with two pictures; one representing the great painter, with his wife's portrait on his easel, and the other Fulton's own portrait."

While practicing the art of painting, Fulton had his attention again attracted to his old favorite science of mechanics, and in 1795 he gave up a profession in which he had never attained very great eminence. His subsequent eareer, however interesting, has noth- ing to do with art. Mr. Dunlap says of one of his paintings, " In 1793 was published a print, engraved by Sherwin, from a picture by Fulton, of Louis XVI. in prison, taking leave of his family. The only copy I have seen is possessed by my friend Dr. Francis ; it is now a curiosity." Fulton painted a very good portrait of his friend, Joel Barlow. He directed and superintended the execution of the fine plates of Bar- low's "Columbiad." Mr. Colden, in his "Life of

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Fulton," says, " He paid about five thousand dollars for the paintings, the plates, and letter-press, which gave him a property in the publication. He relin- quished, by his will, all his right to the widow of Mr. Barlow, with the reservation of fifty of the proof and embellished copies of the work. It was printed in Philadelphia, in quarto, and published in 1807; it is dedicated by Mr. Barlow to Mr. Fulton in such terms as evinced the strong attachment which subsisted be- tween these men of genius. The original paintings, from which the prints of the ' Columbiad' were en- graved, form a part of the handsome collection which Mr. Fulton has left to his family."

Though Fulton had ceased to paint, his love of art never changed. His affection for his kind instructor, West, and admiration for that great artist's talent are attested by his purchasing, at a high price, the pictures painted by West from "Lear" and " Hamlet" for Boydell's "Shakespeare." He also bought a fine picture by Raphael West from "As you like it." He went further and tried to persuade the citizens of Philadelphia to purchase such pictures of West as were at that artist's disposal. In his letter accom- panying the catalogue he remarked, "No city ever had such a collection of admired works from the pencil of one man, and that man is your fellow- citizen." Fifteen thousand pounds sterling was the price set on the collection, "a sum," said Mr. Fulton, "inconsiderable when compared with the objects in view and the advantages to be derived from it."

If Robert Fulton was not a great artist, he had a great mind and a great heart. He died on the 24th of February, 1815. He had married, in 1806, Miss Harriet Livingston, daughter of Walter Livingston, of New York, from which he left issue one son and three daughters.

Two old advertisements tell all we know of two artists who were in Philadelphia for a short time. In the Pennsylvania Packet of January, 1781, is the announcement that " Austin Florimont, limner, lately arrived in this city, who is peculiarly happy in his likenesses, paints miniature and crayon pictures of all sorts at very reasonable prices," and in the Penn- sylvania Gazette of Jan. 20, 1782, " Mr. Verstille, at Mrs. Ford's, in Arch Street," informs us that he "will take miniatures, for two months, for two guineas."

In 1781, George Rutter painted the arms of the State of Pennsylvania over the seats of the judges of the Supreme Court, in the room since called Inde- pendence Hall, and Martin Jugiez carved the orna- mental frame of the coat of arms. These artists, it appears, had not been properly authorized to do this work, for the Assembly resisted their claim, which was not finally settled until 1799.

In the latter part of 1782, Joseph Wright, an Amer- ican artist, lately from London and Paris, came to America. At Princeton, in 1783, he painted portraits of Washington and Mrs. Washington, and was em-

ployed by Congress to take a plaster cast of the features of the former for the purpose of sending it to Europe as a guide for a sculptor to make a statue. Washington submitted to the disagreeable operation, but Wright having unluckily broken the mould after he had re- moved it, the general would not consent to his trying a second cast. In the winter of 1783-84, Wright was in Philadelphia, and painted a portrait of Washington, which the latter presented to Count de Solms. This nobleman had formed a collection of portraits of dis- tinguished military characters, and was anxious to place among them the likeness of the glorious Amer- ican general. Wright went to New York after this, but returned to Philadelphia when Congress came back. He resided here until 1793, when he died of the yellow fever. During that period he executed, among other works, a portrait of Madison and a pic- ture of Madison and family. Wright was a native of Bordentown, N. J. His mother, Patience Lovell, became celebrated as a modeler in wax. Mrs. Wright, after the death of her husband, Joseph Wright, Sr., took her children to London, where she devoted herself to her work of modeling. She became famous in this art, and both in London and Paris made enough money with her wax-work exhibitions to pay for the education of her children. Joseph, who had a taste for painting, studied with West; he was also aided in his efforts by Hopner, who married his sister. He profited in his studies, and before he left England had painted some good portraits, among others that of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Mrs. Wright placed her son under the protection of Benjamin Franklin, in Paris, during part of the winter of 1781-82, and the young artist received several commissions for portraits from the aristocratic families of the Faubourg St. Germain, which he executed before his return to America. Wright had learned from his mother the art of modeling in wax and clay. During his residence in Philadelphia he taught William Rush, the sculptor, how to model in clay. He had also learned die- sinking, and he was appointed die-sinker to the United States Mint a short time before his death. " His children [ his wife died during the same epi- demic of 1793] have a picture painted by him in Philadelphia, representing in small full-lengths him- self, wife, and three children ;" also " a chalk drawing of his head, done from the mirror, which is more like, and very skillfully drawn." 1

Robert Edge Pine, an English painter, who had acquired much fame in his native country, being con- sidered one of the best portrait and historical painters in England before the arrival of West, came to Phila- delphia in 1784. His object in coming to this country was to obtain portraits of noted personages and sketches of places of historical interest, to be after- ward combined in historical paintings of American

1 Dunlap's History of the Arts of Design.

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

subjects. His first portrait painted in America was that of Francis Hopkinson. He was extremely de- sirons of painting Washington, and Mr. Hopkinson feeling interested in him and his plans, wrote to the servant. He also painted, while in Philadelphia, a general, then at Mount Vernon, and obtained this privilege. Pine's portrait of Washington was painted

in 1785. The artist had not much opportunity to | Robert Treat Paine, by Savage, is among the like- paint during the short time he lived in Philadelphia, yet several good portraits by him have been pre- served. A beautiful portrait of Sarah Livingston (Mrs. John Jay) is in possession of the Jay family at New York. A picture of Mrs. Richard Caton (Polly Carroll) belongs to the McTavish family of Maryland. The artist occasionally visited Virginia and Maryland, and painted portraits during these In 1791, the Earl of Buchan presented to Wash- ington, whom he admired above all men, the histor- ical box niade out of the oak-tree which sheltered Sir William Wallace, after his defeat at the battle of Falkirk, by Edward I., in the fourteenth century. Archibald Robertson, an English painter, was the bearer of this box, and obtained the privilege of painting a portrait of Washington in miniature. He also took a miniature likeness of Mrs. Washington, from which he afterward painted her portrait in oil and sent it to the earl. These miniatures were painted in 1792. Mr. Robertson did not prolong his stay in Philadelphia, but went to New York, in which city he resided principally while in this country. excursions. He executed full-length portraits of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Charles Carroll, his son, and the danghters, Mrs. Caton and Mrs. Hooper ; groups of the Patterson and Smith families of Mary- land, and portraits of George Read, of Delaware, and of Thomas Stone. Robert Morris took an interest in Pine, and is said to have procured for him the use of a house on Eighth Street, above Market, where the artist died, Nov. 19, 1788. Mary Pine, his widow, presented a petition to the Legislature of Pennsyl- vania, stating that her husband came to America with a view of representing, in several large paint- ings, the principal events of the late American war, and that he had brought with him original historical paintings, engravings, drawings, and designs. A building was erected for the reception thereof, but the debts were not yet paid upon it. She therefore prayed for permission to dispose of her husband's pictures by lottery. The Assembly granted her prayer, and the pictures were disposed of, many of them falling into the possession of Daniel Bowen, who exhibited them at his museum, and afterward removed them to Boston.

Concerning Pine's merit as an artist, it is said that his drawing was weak, but that his coloring was ex- cellent. Allston said of him, " In the coloring of the figures his pictures in the Columbian Museum at Boston were my first masters. Pine had certainly, as far as I can recollect, considerable merit in color."

Joseph Hopkinson says of Pine,-

" Ho was a very small man ; morbidly irritable. His wife and daugh- ters were also very diminutive ; they were, indeed, a faosily of pigmies. After his death his family went back to Europe. . . . He brought with him a plaster cast of the Venne de Medici, which was kept shut up in a case, and only shown to persons who particularly wished to see it, as the manners of our country, at that time, would not tolerate a public exhibi- tion of such a figure. This fact shows our progress in civilization and the arts."

Mr. Dunlap mentions Edward Savage, a native of New England, as having lived in Philadelphia before , age. In our notice of Cosmo Alexander we have re- 1789. It is said of this artist that "he painted poor pictures, and made still poorer engravings from them." One of his pictures, however, "Washington and his Family," is extensively known through the country by the many engravings and lithographs which have i

been made from it. It represented the general, Mrs. Washington, George Washington Parke Custis, his sister, afterward Mrs. Lewis, and Billy, a favorite profile portrait of George Washington upon wood, which was said to be a good likeness. A portrait of nesses of " The Signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence," engraved by Longacre. Engravings from , portraits of Gen. Anthony Wayne and William Smith, of South Carolina, by Savage, were published in 1801. The first panorama ever exhibited in Phila- delphia was shown by Savage in 1795. It represented the cities of London and Westminster.

C. Milbourne, who was brought from England by Wignell, in 1793, as scene-painter for the Chestnut Street Theatre, was gifted with a correct artistic taste. For his benefit, in December, 1794, he painted some local scenes to illustrate a pantomime called "The Elopement." Among these scenes, a view of Arch Street wharf, with a boat sailing on the Delaware, and a view of Third and Market Streets were remarkable for their excellence. James Cox, another English- man, came to Philadelphia in 1794. He had been a colorer for Boydell, the famous London print-seller, and excelled in drawing and painting flowers. He was very successful in Philadelphia as a drawing- master.

In 1794 there came to Philadelphia that famous portrait-painter and most eccentric genius, Gilbert Stuart. A native of Rhode Island, he was connected with one of the old Philadelphia families, his mother being a sister of Joseph Anthony, of this city. Gil- bert Charles Stuart, or Gilbert Stuart, for he dropped the middle name when he became a painter, had shown at a very early age a decided taste for drawing, and after copying pictures had even attempted like- nesses in black lead, many of which were considered successful, when he was little over thirteen years of

lated how that artist, after giving lessons to the boy Gilbert, had taken him with him to South Carolina, and thence to Scotland. Not very long after their arrival in that country Mr. Alexander died. Stuart then became a pupil of Sir George Chambers, but 1

ART AND ARTISTS.

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 46

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992