San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-02-18
PEALE'S WASHINGTON.
How the Portrait Was Painted Is Toll

One of the leading lawyers of New Jersey
was some time ago engaged in the admin
istration of an estate that involved, among
other things the ownership of COPY by
Rembrandt Peale of his original portrait
of Washington and also copy of Peales
fathers portrait of Mrs. Washington. The
executor of the Peale estate was appealed
to, and he furnished a bundle of old letters
from the artist himself, which not only
settled the question in litigation, but
brought to light interesting information
concerning those famous portraits.
These letters have never been published.
Peale died in Philadelphia in 1860, and the
letters to the executor were written in
1854. Peale, it will be recalled, was only
eighteen years old when he painted Wash
ington's portrait.
The following letter tells its own story
of the way in which the artist painted the
portrait of the Father of his Country. 1t
is dated Philadelphia, March, 1854:
by express l send you copy of my
Washington, and shall with pleasure i'm
mediately finish for you portrait of Mrs.
Washington which / had begun for an
other destination some weeks ago.
when Washington sat to me in 1895.
the latter part of September, he came to
my room at O'Clock, each time as he en-
tered in the act of putting his watch in his
fob, thus giving me an example of pune
tuality which have since enforced on all
my sitters. My father, an old acquaint-
ance, kept him in conversation, which en-
abled me to study his countenance. 1t was
a period of some anxiety with him, as he
was hesitating whether or not to sign Jays
treaty with England: and further, he was
doubtless disturbed by the publication of
forged letters, which it was asserted were
taken ON the person of runaway servant
No one ventured to speak with him on the
subject, and he would not condescend I'M
asked to deny them. My uncle, James
Peale. a jealous politician, at the second
sitting he gave me, bluntly addressed him,
General, did you write those lettersY To
which he replied, L never lost any letters.
No servant of mine ever ran away from
me- He talked at ease on other subjects,
ington's) answer to everybody he knew,
and in two hours all Philadelphia was re-
lieved of the scandal.
Before the invention of porcelain teeth
on gold plates it was the practice of the
dentists to fashion them from blocks Of
seahorse ivory. One of these sets was made
by the elder Gardette for General Wash
ington, but it was fortunate for me that
he sat to me without them, as they were
Just finished and were clumsy and uncom-
Portable and distended his mouth so that
he finally rejected them, and it was equally
unfortunate for Stuart that his portrait
represents him as he appeared for short
time with them, looking, as Judge Wash
ington informed me, as though rinsing his
mouth with water, and, as Stuart himself
informed me, preventing him from holding
any conversation Though ignorant of the
cause) so essential to the production of
an animated likeness. By sitting so early
as in the morning had his hair before it
was curled and powdered by the barber,
after which hour Mr.. Stuart's portrait was
painted.
81 painted this portrait with but little
reference to any pecuniary compensation,
but for my own hearts satisfaction, to take
with me to Europe, proudly to be valued
as the portrait of the Father of my Coun-
try and the revered of all nations. never
offered it to congress, but the senate fat
tered me into their acquisition of it by a
unanimous vote, supported by Henry Clay,
who declared that if he could have his will
not only every room in the Capitol, but
every house in the United States, should
have this portrait of Washington
st is now the reward of my enthusiastic
excitement in producing it, and IL is my
devotional duty in reproducing them to
crafty the taste and patriotism of those
who think with Chateaubriand that there
is a virtue in the looks of a great man."
1t is right that paragraph should be
added showing the turmoil that surround
ed Washington at the time he sat for the
picture to Peale in 1795. He had just been
summoned from Mount Vernon because of
the excitement over jays treaty. While
he was sitting to the young artist Jay was
being burned in effigy in Boston, and the
intercepted dispatches of the French min
lister had but just led to rupture between
President Washington and Secretary of
State Edmund Randolph that led to the
latter's retirement in everlasting disgrace.
This old letter of Peale's throws a strong
light on Washington's demeanor at that
critical period.-New York Herald.