George Washington

c. 1850

Rembrandt Peale

Artist, American, 1778 - 1860

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Davison

  • Dimensions

    overall: 91.5 x 73.3 cm (36 x 28 7/8 in.)
    framed: 126.1 x 103.5 x 12.7 cm (49 5/8 x 40 3/4 x 5 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.7.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Henry Ward Sill [1809-1857], New York;[1] probably his sister, Sarah Hubbard Sill [1822-1897], Middletown, Connecticut;[2] his daughter, Sophia Matilda Sill Burt [Mrs. Charles Richard Burt, 1842-1922], Hartford, Connecticut;[3] her niece, Harriet Sill Baldwin Davison [Mrs. George W. Davison, 1873-1953], Greenwich, Connecticut;[4] gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] The provenance was supplied by George W. Davison, who sent the history of the painting to the gallery at the time of the gift (document, NGA curatorial files, with letter dated 23 July 1942). He wrote that Sill, his wife's grandfather, purchased the portrait from Peale. On Sill see Genealogy of the Descendants of John Sill, who settled in Cambridge, Mass., in 1637, Albany, 1859: 49-50, which describes him as a merchant. Biographical information on Sill and his descendants has been provided by Judith Ellen Johnson, Reference Librarian and Genealogist, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford.
[2] George Davison wrote in 1942 that after Sill's death the picture went to his "ancestral home" in Middletown, Connecticut. This undoubtedly occurred when Sill's three orphaned daughters, Hannah, Caroline and Sophia, returned with his mother Clarissa Sill and his sister Sarah Sill to Middletown; his wife had predeceased him. The U.S. Federal Census, Middlesex County, Middletown, Connecticut, 1860, 233, lists his mother, his sister, and his three daughters as living in Middletown. For Sarah's birth date, see Genealogy of the Descendants of John Sill..., 1859: 47; her death date was provided by the Middletown, Connecticut, Health Department to Judith Johnson.
[3] Davison wrote in 1942 that Mrs. Burt took the portrait from Middletown to her home in Hartford in the 1890s. Genealogy of the Descendants of John Sill..., 1859: 50; Henry M. Burt and Silas W. Burt, Life and Times of Henry Burt of Springfield and Some of his Descendants, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1893: 570; "Sophia Matilda Sill Burt," Charles R. Hale Collection, Connecticut State Library, Hartford; Obituary, Hartford Daily Times, 21 March 1922, 20 (clipping, Morris Scrapbooks, vol. 124, 49).
[4] On Mrs. Davison see Charles Candee Baldwin, The Baldwin Genealogy, from 1500 to 1881, Cleveland, 1881: 201; Charles Candee Baldwin, The Baldwin Genealogy, Supplement, Cleveland, 1889: 1025. Mrs. Davison's death date is included in Mr. Davison's obituary in The New York Times, 17 June 1953: 27.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1945

  • Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1945-1949.

1949

  • Extended loan for use by Blair House, Washington, D.C., 1949-1952.

1952

  • Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1952-1961.

Bibliography

1928

  • Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, unnumbered.

1931

  • Morgan, John Hill, and Mantle Fielding. The Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas. Philadelphia, 1931: 370-381 (does not include NGA painting).

1932

  • Eisen, Gustavus A. Portraits of Washington. 3 vols. New York, 1932: 2:416-419 (does not discuss NGA painting).

1966

  • "George Washington 5-cent." Scott's Monthly Stamp Journal 47, no. 1 (March 1966): 34.

  • Lidman, David. "Stamps: Washington Definitive." New York Times (16 January 1966): section 2: 30.

  • McAlister, Clare. "Rembrandt Peale." Scott's Monthly Stamp Journal 47, no. 1 (March 1966): 35-36, repro.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 88, repro.

1974

  • Marzulla, Elena, ed. Pictorial Treasury of U.S. Stamps. Omaha, Nebraska, 1974: 144.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 206, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 105-106, repro. 106

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 375, no. 526, color repro.

1985

  • Hevner, Carol Eaton. Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts. With a biographical essay by Lillian B. Miller. Exh. cat. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1985: 88-89 (does not discuss NGA painting).

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 256, repro.

  • Hevner, Carol Eaton. "The Paintings of Rembrandt Peale: Character and Conventions." In Miller, Lillian B. In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1992: 231-232, 280 (does not discuss NGA painting).

1998

  • Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 60-64, color repro.

Inscriptions

by a later hand, lower left: Rembrandt Peal[e]

Wikidata ID

Q20187966

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