CHARLES PEALE POLK
(Annapolis, MD 1767 – 1822 Warsaw, VA)

Portrait of George Washington

Oil on canvas
32 ⅞ x 25 ¾ inches (83.2 x 65.4 cm)

Provenance:

Private Collection, Portugal, until 2020.

This portrait of George Washington is a new addition to the corpus of Washington portraits by Charles Peale Polk, one of the four notable artists responsible for the leading lifetime portrayals of the first President. The others are Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), progenitor of the Peale family dynasty of artists and Charles Peale Polk’s uncle; Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860), Charles Willson’s brother; and Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828). Whereas Rembrandt Peale’s so-called “Porthole” portraits show Washington as heroic and idealized, set within an illusionistic masonry oval, and Gilbert Stuart’s images are more realistic, presenting him as elder statesman in gentleman’s attire, Polk’s portrayals of Washington stand out in depicting him as a commanding General in the course of the Revolutionary War.

Charles Peale Polk trained under his uncle Charles, and his famous iconic likenesses of Washington (some thirty in number) were inspired by Charles Willson’s so-called “Convention Portrait”—painted when Washington sat for Peale in July of that year while serving as president of Constitutional Convention—of 1787 (Fig. 1). Polk used his uncle Charles’ portrait as the basis for various paintings he made of the president. In some of his earliest versions Polk replicated the head of Washington and the bust-length format (Fig. 2), but he later elaborated the composition into three-quarter length portraits that depicted more of Washington’s uniform and showed him holding a tricorn hat and the hilt of a sword.

While Polk painted other subjects, he is primarily known and esteemed for his variations on his portrait of George Washington, all dating from between 1787 and 1793. As in the present work, these paintings show Washington in his prime, richly attired in his blue uniform with three-star epaulets that designate his rank as Commander in Chief, often with indications of an encampment in the background. Of the known versions, several are in major museum collections, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Huntington Library and Art Museum, the Chrysler Museum of Art, and the Winterthur Museum. While the history of some of Polk’s Washingtons are documented, others have come to light more recently, and it is interesting that a number were commissioned by or for foreigners, ending up, for example, in collections in Ireland, Holland, Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal, from where the present work has recently emerged.

Polk’s portraits of this composition came to be known as the “Princeton type,” as several depict Princeton’s Nassau Hall. The inclusion of this landmark references the victory of the Battle of Princeton in January of 1777, which marked a turning point in the Revolution. Washington and the Continental Armies first victories came at the battles of Princeton and Trenton, and the successes of the campaign in New Jersey charted a new course towards victory. Other portraits of this type omit Nassau Hall but include varying depictions of soldiers amidst tents. While they were painted during Washington’s presidency, these works looked backwards to Washington’s victories during the Revolutionary War and heralded his position as Father of His Country. Around the time that Polk began painting his “Princeton” portraits, he wrote to George Washington requesting a sitting to record his likeness. In his message to Washington, in which he refers to himself in the third person, Polk notes that he has already completed some 50 portraits of the president: “He has in the Course of the last year Executed Fifty Portraits tho his advantages were not what he wished. But Imagines if your Excellency’s Leisure and Inclination will permit he shall hereafter be capable of Exhibiting more Just and Finished performances.”[1] It is unknown whether Charles Peale Polk ever had the chance to paint Washington from life, as the President noted such sittings in his diary, but his 1790 entries are lost.

Our portrait seems to date from early in the series of “Princeton” portraits, when Charles Peale Polk was working to devise the ideal composition. This is evinced both by the closeness of the treatment of Washington’s head and uniform to Charles Willson Peale’s “Convention Portrait” and Polk’s replica in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but also the pentimenti visible in the painting and its distinctiveness from later versions of the “Princeton” type. The many surviving portraits of Washington by Polk are each rendered with variations in the characterization of the figure and his surrounds one from the next. No one version is an exact replica of another, and the variety and changes among them seem to be a constant, as if Polk is endeavoring to make each portrait different in some way.

The present painting comes closest to the three-quarter portrait in the Princeton University Art Museum (Figs. 3-4). Both portraits are distinct within the wider group in depicting Washington against a dark, brooding sky with swirling masses of angled clouds—as well as in the inclusion of two stars on the epaulette on the sitter’s proper left shoulder. While Charles Willson Peale’s “Convention Portrait” and Polk’s replica in the Metropolitan Museum of Art include indications of stars on this shoulder, no other “Princeton” portraits depict the upper portion of left epaulette (beyond the fringe). Other similarities between ours and the Princeton University Art Museum painting include the sketchy characterization in the left background of the tents and the standing soldier, who has gained an additional, seated companion in our painting.

Despite the several analogies between the two paintings, several nuanced differences that speak to the work being an autograph version by Polk are also visible. There are two pentimenti in the description of Washington’s uniform, including the light-colored outline along Washington’s coat (indicating a change in position and consequent slimming) of his right arm, as well as the shadow along the proper left collar (which has been shortened, adjusting it from the height of its counterpart in the Princeton University Art Museum to a slimmer profile). Additionally, in the lower right of our portrait, the tricorn hat is significantly larger and fills this area of the composition, not allowing for additional details in the background. Washington’s hand also is described differently in our portrait and the Princeton University version. The more articulated fingers and the outstretched index finger is typical amongst the later portraits of this type, as opposed to the closed hand in the Princeton University version, which appears only in that painting. Finally, one especially intriguing aspect of our portrait is that the button on Washington’s waistcoat located just below his white ruff appears to have slipped through its hole and is represented foreshortened at an extreme angle. This detail, which is unique among Polk’s Washington portraits, is significant not only as a passage of clever invention and visual interest, but also in that it enlivens the portrait.

Our portrait is in especially exceptional condition. Until a recent professional conservation treatment, the work was essentially in original state—still on its original strainer with tacking edges intact and showing no evidence of prior campaigns of retouching (which is extraordinary for a work from any period, and particularly for a work of the 18th century). It has been professionally conserved to address some fly specks on the paint surface and strip lined to improve the surface tension.

Dr. Linda Crocker Simmons has confirmed Charles Peale Polk’s authorship of this portrait of George Washington (written communication, 17 January 2024).[2] She has written of the painting: 

“In his letter Polk stated to Washington that he had already produced 50 portraits and wished to produce “more Just and Finished Performances.” Clearly he was striving for a “living” image of Washington which would convey to contemporary viewers the military leader who had become the first President of the young nation. This painting like the many others known by Polk is not merely a copy of other Washington portraits he produced. This is a true replica and incorporates many individual qualities and details. In this portrait Polk has made many changes and achieved a vivid depiction with a freshness of brushstrokes and liveliness of details and other elements that lend themselves very strongly to what I think Polk was seeking to achieve when he asked Washington to sit for him in 1790. As with some of the finest portraits of other contemporary painters like Stuart, members of the Peale family, Trumbull and others, this portrait comes very close to a life portrait of George Washington. Also it contains the elements of Polk’s style of painting at its finest as will be seen throughout his career.”

[1] George Washington Papers, quoted in: Linda Crocker Simmons, Charles Peale Polk, 1776–1822: A Limner and His Likenesses, Washington DC, 1981, pp. 4-5.

[2] Linda Crocker Simmons is Curator Emerita of The Corcoran Gallery of Art. She curated and authored the exhibition catalogue of Charles Peale Polk (1767–1822), A Limner and His Likenesses. Her expertise on the portrait is available upon request.