George Washington, Porthole Portrait

George Washington, Porthole Portrait presents a heroic, idealized George Washington dressed as a military commander. The figure is set against a vague, cloud-filled background and enclosed within an illusionistic painted frame of worn, cracked masonry, a motif borrowed from Roman funerary and heroic portraits. Washington's upper body faces the viewer squarely, but his head is slightly turned and his glance is elevated, so that he appears to be gazing serenely into the glorious future of the nation he fathered both as the leader of American forces during the Revolutionary War and as its first president. Washington's familiar features are unmistakable in the smoothly modeled surfaces, but the figure's lofty expression, the undefined setting, and the stone "porthole" that distances the viewer from the subject combine to elevate the heroic idea of Washington over the physical reality of the individual man. In this respect, Peale's image combines portraiture with history painting, the idealized portrayal of events from the past to convey high moral lessons.

Peale had begun his career at the precocious age of thirteen by painting Washington from life, in 1795. His father, painter Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), was the first to paint Washington from life and ultimately made the largest number of life portraits of him, so it is not surprising that Rembrandt, who shared a birthday with the great hero, should also aspire to portray him. In 1824, more than a quarter-century after painting the life portrait, Rembrandt painted the prototype for his series of seventy-nine "porthole" likenesses of Washington, of which the Terra Foundation's painting is one. He drew not only on his life portrait of 1795 but on those by his father and American painters Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828) and John Trumbull (1756–1843). His most important source, however, was the plaster bust of Washington by French sculptor Jean Houdon (1741–1828) (circa 1786; National Portrait Gallery). From Houdon's work and during his studies in Paris in 1808 and 1809–10, Rembrandt absorbed the contemporary artistic style called neoclassicism, reflected in the rather hard surfaces of the face, the lofty tone of the portrait, and the reference to classical antiquity embodied in the stone "frame," which lends the portrait the monumentality and dignity appropriate to a public image of a national hero.

As the nation approached the fiftieth anniversary of its founding, celebratory images of associated events and heroes proliferated. Interest was further stimulated by the 1824 triumphant return visit to America of the Marquis de Lafayette, the popular Frenchman who had aided American troops during the Revolutionary War, and by political and social instability, which encouraged the veneration of past heroes as symbols of threatened ideals. The youngest and most active of the artists who had portrayed Washington from life, Rembrandt capitalized on that early experience in his campaign to "own" Washington's image. Concerned that his likeness be perceived as an authentic historical document, he published testimonials of its veracity from Washington's associates. This stress on accuracy reflects the contemporary "sciences" of physiognomy and phrenology, which posited that innate character was reflected in an individual's features and expression and the shape of the head. Although Peale devoted more than thirty years to painting and promoting his Washington portraits, however, his image never achieved the iconic status of Gilbert Stuart's likeness.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

Face to Face: Portraits from the Collections of Terra Museum of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 8, 1994–April 2, 1995.

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 1997.

Selections from the Permanent Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–August 27, 1997.

New Faces, New Places: Recent Additions to the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 14–December 31, 2000.

Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]

American Classics: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 26–September 1, 2002.

Deux collections en regard: oeuvres de la Terra Foundation for the Arts et du Detroit Institute of Arts (Side by Side: Works from the Terra Foundation for the Arts and the Detroit Institute of Arts), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 2–June 1, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Crakow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Crakow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Art Across America, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: National Museum of Korea, Seoul, February 4– May 12, 2013; Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, South Korea, June 7–September 1, 2013. [exh. cat.]

American Encounters: Portraiture in an Age of Revolution (New Frontier III, Portraits anglo-américains à l’heure de la Révolution) , Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, and Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, January 31–April 28, 2014; Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, May 17–September 15, 2014; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia September 28, 2014–January 18, 2015. [exh. cat.]

American Paintings III 1985. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1985. Ill. p. 9 (black & white).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-4. p. 113 (color).

Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover." The Journal of the American Medical Association 269:7 (February 17, 1993): 861. Text p. 861; ill. cover (color).

George Washington, Porthole Portrait, Rembrandt Peale. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 1997. Ill. (black & white).

Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Faces of America: Portraits of the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text p. 33 (checklist); ill. p. 38 (color).

Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Visages de l'Amérique: le portrait dans la collection de la Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text p. 33 (checklist); ill. p. 38 (color).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Text pp. 42–43, 64; ill. front cover (color), p. 65 (color).

Murphy, Kevin M. American Encounters:  Anglo-American portraiture in an era of revolution. (exh. cat., Crystal Bridges Museum of Amerivcan Art). Bentonville, Arkansas:  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 2013.  Text p. 45, 47, 64, 66, 68; Cat. 3, p. 65 (color).

Art Across America. (exh. cat., National Museum of Korea, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art). Seoul, South Korea: National Museum of Korea, 2013. (English and Korean versions). Text p. 59; ill. p. 58 (color).

Saunders, Richard H. American Faces: A Cultural History of Portraiture and Identity. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2016. Text p. 62. Ill. p. 62 (color, as George Washington (Patriae Pater)).

Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 32; ill. p. 32 (color).