Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-09-29
BY FRANK GETTEN
star Art Critic

spread all over the spectrum
they are also spectacularly
arranged on the vertical plan
What's more, when you gel
there you can see 1.-THE Peale
Heritage" at the Washington
County Museum of Fine Art.
and learn more about thu
first family Of American
painting.
Like Hagerstown, the Peales
go back to the 18th century
The show marks the 200th
anniversary Of Charles Will.
son Peale's first dated works
In 1853, Peale was a sign
painter, like so many of our
Colonial artists. Unlike most
Of them, Peale was smitten
by the love Of art and painted
a landscape that Is probably
the earliest landscape paint
ing In our history.
He went to England, was
confirmed in his artistic died.
ication by Benjamin West
and returned to America in
time to instruct his younger
brother, James, in the art,
and in time for both Of them
to enlist in the American
Revolution.
Brush With War
The long war affected their
art as well as their lives
Charles Wilson Peale painted
several Of the best portraits
Of Washington and, like Gil
bert Stuart, made q steady
income through the years by
painting pictures Of the Gen.
eral. James Peale left the
war when 1t got protractedly
dull-things were more free
and easy in those days-but
was back on the roster In
time for the surrender at
Yorktown, which he painted.
After the war the family
career gathered momentum.
Charles Wilson opened a
muse UNI in Philadelphia
which, like the Smithsonian
today, attempted to cover all
the fields Of knowledge as
well as art and even sent out
expeditions to dig up fossils.
He installed an early form of
moving pictures" but they
were not q bowling success.
The museum as a whole was.
largely because it provided
entertainment which was also
educational.
Two Of his sons, Raphaelle
and Rembrandt, opened a
branch museum in Baltimore,
which Is still there. but it
had small success and both
returned to Philadelphia.
Raphaelle, possibly the most
talented of q clan that was
to number a dozen or so
practicing artists, was I'M
fortunately an amiable drunk
who rolled easily with the
blows Of fate.
Raphaelle cut prices on
his miniature portraits and
even advertised for still life"
portrait painting, by which
he meant hurry-up likenesses
Of the departed between
death and burial. Brilliant
ventriloquist, hapless inven-
tor, verse-writer and silhou-
ette-cutter, he drifted from
trade to trade. always paint
ing.
Canvas Top
Rembrandt's life is dis
tinguished by the surprising
and successful project of
taking a painting on the
road. His huge canvas, THE
Court Of DEATH" a moral
allegory, he hauled from city
to city and along the opening
frontier, charging admission
and crossing over $4,000 the
first year. an astonishing
sum in 1901.
The boys uncle. James, in
1928 painted a landscape, on
view at Hagerstown, unlike
anything in our previous his
tory. Wind-driven clouds and
trees frame misty mountains
and lake. The rom q mite
landscape was discovered
and was to dominate our art
until the end Of the century
James, 10. was nearing the
end Of his life in art.
His daughter Sarah, who
lived from 1900 to 1885, sup
ported herself entirely on her
earnings as q miniaturist.
There were other sons and
daughters, many involved, al
one remove or another, with
art. A descendant. Charles
Coleman Sellers, is one Of
our times leading historians
OF American art and has
written the catalogue essay
at Hagerstown.
or this fundamentally i'm
portant family. what do we
see at the Washington County
Museum? Most members
are represented, not all by
their finest or best-known