Patriae Pater [Father Of The Country]
Artist
Rembrandt Peale
(American, 1778-1860)
Publisher
John Pendleton
(American, 19th Century)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1826
MediumLithograph
DimensionsOverall, Image: 19 1/4 × 15 1/4 in. (48.9 × 38.7 cm)
Overall, Sheet: 22 7/8 × 15 7/16 in. (58.1 × 39.2 cm)
Overall, Mat: 32 × 26 in. (81.3 × 66 cm)
Overall, Sheet: 22 7/8 × 15 7/16 in. (58.1 × 39.2 cm)
Overall, Mat: 32 × 26 in. (81.3 × 66 cm)
InscribedPrinted below image, lower center: "Washington. From the Original Portrait Painted by Rembrandt Peale." Written in ink across bottom edge: "Printed by John Pendleton Boston Mass. Drawn on Stone by Rembrandt Peale in 1827-"
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.2666
Not on view
Label TextRembrandt Peale American (1778-1860) for W. S. & J. B. Pendleton, Lithographers, Boston Patriae Pater [Father of the Country], ca. 1826 Lithograph Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2666 In 1827, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia awarded Rembrandt Peale a silver medal for this remarkable lithograph. It reproduces Peale's 1824 oil portrait of Washington, which he had hoped to sell to the United States Congress. For that work, Peale (who at age 17 had stood beside his father Charles Willson Peale and painted Washington from life) created what he called a "standard likeness" - drawing on a variety of sources. In his words these included every "Portrait, Bust, Medallion, and Print of Washington that [he] could find - thus to excite and resuscitate [his] memory." Rembrandt Peale's method proved somewhat controversial and he ended up seeking written endorsements as to the image's accuracy from those who had known Washington - among them Bushrod Washington, Chief Justice John Marshall, and the Marquis de Lafayette. In addition to the lithographic copies, Peale would paint at least 75 replicas in oil during the remaining three and a half decades of his life. Congress bought Peale's original oil in 1832 - the centennial of Washington's birth - and that portrait remains in the collection of the United States Senate today.Exhibition History"First in the Hearts of His Countrymen: America Remembers George Washington 1732-1799," Chrysler Museum of Art, Nov. 23, 1999 - Summer 2001.
