Oil on canvas, framed

Provenance

From the Estate of former Pennsylvania Governor William W. Scranton and First Lady Mary L. Scranton
Freeman's Auction, April 25, 2018, Lot 149
Private collection

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.