American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

Provenance:

Darius Ogden Mills (1825-1910), and wife Jane Templeton Cunningham (1832-1888), Millbrae, California, before 1880,

Elisabeth Ogden Mills (1858-1931) and husband Whitelaw Reid (1837-1912), Westchester County, New York,

Ogden Mills Reid (1882-1947) and wife Helen Miles Rogers (1882-1970), New York, New York,

Ambassador Ogden Rogers Reid (1925-2019) and wife Mary Louise Reid (1925-2024), Westchester, County, New York,

The Collection of Ambassador and Mrs. Ogden R. Reid.

Note:

Painted between 1791 to 1793, this version of Charles Peale Polk's George Washington at Princeton is an example of the artist's largest and most inclusive composition of his famous subject. The portrait offers specifics of the historic 1777 battle of Princeton-Nassau Hall, troop encampment, company flag, as well as a more comprehensive depiction of the General's uniform and sword hilt. It is not known how many versions of George Washington at Princeton or "Princeton" type portraits were executed by Polk. In 1790, Polk wrote to Washington requesting an in-person sitting to assist him in completing his 50th portrait of the then President.

Polk never painted Washington from life. The head of the General was copied from his uncle and teacher, Charles Willson Peale's 1787 "Convention" portrait of Washington taken from life during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Polk's use of bold color and the painstakingly painted embellishments of the uniform and sword hilt present a powerful yet approachable, Washington.

It is believed that Darius Ogden Mills a philanthropist and highly successful businessman with interests in real estate, mining, agriculture, railroad and a founder of the Bank of California, purchased this portrait of George Washington at Princeton in the 1870's.  A passionate art collector, Mills filled his Millbrae, California home, " Happy House," with sophisticated furnishings. He is included in the Frick Collection- Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America. Mills served as a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Natural History, and the American Geographical Society and was active in numerous other institutions.  

Elisabeth Mills Reid, presumably inherited the portrait upon her father's death. Reid was also a philanthropist and especially active with the American Red Cross. Her husband, Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New-York Tribune, was a popular Republican politician, and held appointments as the U. S. Minister to France and Ambassador to Great Britain.

Their son, Ogden Mills Reid was named editor of the New York Tribune at his father's death. Reid purchased the New York Herald in 1924, and created the New York Herald Tribune.  The Portrait of George Washington at Princeton hung for many years in the newspaper's offices.  Ogden Reid, followed his father as publisher of the New York Herald Tribune from 1955 until 1958 when the paper was sold to John Jay Whitney .

The sale of the newspaper brought the Portrait of George Washington at Princeton back to the home of Ogden and Mary Louise Reid. From 1959 to 1961, the portrait hung in the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel during the term of Ambassador Ogden Reid.

The family vividly recounts strapping the portrait into a seat of a prop-engine plane before it's journey to the Middle East.

Literature:

For related examples and discussion of the "Princeton" type portraits, see Linda Crocker Simmons, Charles Peale Polk 1767-1822: A Limner And His Likenesses (1981).

Label on verso of Gustav A. Berger, New York, April 1978 and records conservation, " This portrait of George Washington by Charles Peale Polk, oil on wax-lined canvas was relined by me. Upon removalof the wax -lining the signature was found on the original back of the painting." Additional label notes substances used in conservation.
Painting in very good condition.
Retains a regilded period frame ; with a replacement- Oberlin spring tension stretcher. Canvas fluoresces green overall under UV light but reveals several vertical areas of retouch to upper and lower left side of canvas- likely indicating old repairs or former stretcher creases Minor retouch to uniform lower center area above frame. Some very light, precise retouch along craquelure-forehead, nose and hand. The edges of canvas have some scratches, minor paint loss under frame.

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