American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

Note

In 1795, Charles Willson Peale arranged for his 17 year-old son, Rembrandt, to accompany him to a portrait sitting with George Washington. Though never fully satisfied with the portrait that resulted from that sitting, Rembrandt used it as a model for replicas. Twenty five years later, after a tour of France and exposure to the neoclassical style, Rembrandt Peale sought to create a new "standard likeness" of Washington, one that expressed the first President's "mild, thoughtful & dignified, yet firm and energetic Countenance." In 1823, he created his first "Porthole" painting, showing Washington within a stone oval window. Rembrandt painted numerous replicas of the "Porthole" George Washington, as well as "Porthole" Martha Washington, until the 1850s.