George Washington
Artist
Charles Peale Polk
(American, 1767-1822)
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1791-1793
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 36 1/8 x 29 in. (91.8 x 73.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 40 1/2 x 33 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (102.9 x 84.8 x 6.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 40 1/2 x 33 3/8 x 2 1/2 in. (102.9 x 84.8 x 6.4 cm)
InscribedReverse, across bottom: "No. 54 C. Polk / Painter" and at reverse, center: "Christopher H(?) / Oct 5th 1791(?)
Credit LineAnonymous gift
Object number63.16.6
Not on view
DescriptionThis is a half-length portrait of George Washington at the site of the Battle of Princeton, showing Nassau Hall in the background.Label TextCharles Peale Polk American (1767-1822) George Washington, ca. 1791-93 Oil on canvas Anonymous Gift 63.16.6 As the central hero of the American Revolution, George Washington (1732-1799) in his final years became a national icon of nearly mythic proportions. Already in his lifetime, images of him were in great demand, and their popularity remained unabated well into the nineteenth century. In the portrait here, Washington, dressed in his buff and blue Continental Army uniform with three stars on its epaulets, stands in a blustery, cloud-filled landscape with Princeton's Nassau Hall visible in the distance. The detail alludes to his triumph at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777, the first substantial American victory of the Revolution. The nephew of famed painter Charles Willson Peale, the Baltimore folk artist Charles Peale Polk made a specialty of portraits of Washington, painting scores of images of the great general during the early 1790s. The Chrysler's portrait is among the finest of these. Exhibition HistoryNational Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1917 Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, Norfolk, VA, 1945-1963. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Charles Peale Polk (1776-1882): A Limner and His Likenesses," Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., July 18 to September 6, 1981; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, VA, September 27 to November 19, 1981; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH, December 11, 1981 to February 12, 1982; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN, February 28 to April 18, 1982; Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich, MA, May 10 to October 15, 1982. "The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy, 1770-1870," Philadelphia Museum of Art, November 1, 1996 - January 5, 1997; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, January 15 - Apri l6, 1997; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, April 26 - July 6, 1997. "First in the Hearts of His Countrymen: America Remembers George Washington 1732-1799," Chrysler Museum of Art, Nov. 23, 1999 - Summer 2001. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013.Published ReferencesJ. H. Morgan & M. Fielding, THE LIFE PORTRAITS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THEIR REPLICAS (1931), NO. 14, P. 135. Dennis R. Anderson, THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN ART IN THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM (Norfolk, VA: 1976), b/w ill. p. 88. Linda Crocker Simmons, CHARLES PEALE POLK, 1776-1822: A LIMNER AND HIS LIKENESSES (Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1981), ill. p. xxi; Cat. No. 24, p. 30. Lillian B. Miller, ed., THE PEALE FAMILY: CREATION OF A LEGACY, 1770-1870 (New York: Abbeville Press in association with The Trust for Museum Exhibitions, and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1996), pp. 251-252, No. 82, p. 307; color ill. p. 252, Plate 129.
