The Mentor, No. 45, Makers of American Art

MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART

By J. THOMSON WILLING

WEST

COPLEY

STUART

THE MENTOR

Serial No. 45

Department of Fine Arts

MENTOR GRAVURES

LADY WENTWORTH
By John Singleton Copley—1737-1815

CHRIST REJECTED
By Benjamin West—1738-1820

GEORGE WASHINGTON
By Charles Willson Peale—1741-1827

ALEXANDER HAMILTON
By John Trumbull—1756-1843

DOLLY MADISON
By Gilbert Stuart—1755-1828

A SPANISH GIRL
By Washington Allston—1779-1843

Early art in America was distinctly commercial, in that it conformed
to the law of demand and supply. In those prephotographic days
records were desired of the appearance of people who were gradually
coming into an easier mode of living than their ancestors, the hardy pioneers,
had been able to acquire. The Colonial official, the landowner, the
merchant, all wished to emulate in little the great folk of the Old World,
and have family portraits. The craftsmen to supply the demand were
few, and the quality of their art far from fine. The Colonial period was
barren of good production. It is marvelous that in this pictorially uncultured
time, without the stimulus of good examples to be seen and of
fellow strivers to instruct, such wonderfully good workers in art should
arise as Copley in Boston and West in Pennsylvania, and a little later Malbone
in Newport, who in miniature work outclassed anyone then working.
After study in Europe these men’s work was broader and better; but yet
much of their early work indicates their caliber.

EARLY AMERICAN
PORTRAITS

MR. and MRS. IZARD (Alice DeLancey)

By Copley, in Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

After the proclamation of
peace the people were more
prosperous and the portrait
market was good. Not only
family portraits were wanted,
but portraits of political heroes.
The commercial artist
was there to take orders and
deliver the goods. The goods
he delivered were of a very
high grade of workmanship.
After the individual portrayal
came the order for the historical
picture, the celebration of
the dramatic moment and the great event. Further than these two
classes of pictures the earliest art did not go. The life of the day in
all its human aspects of picturesqueness was ignored. The genre picture
did not come until about the middle of the nineteenth century.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

By Copley, in Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

In England, Benjamin West, who had gone there about his twenty-fifth
year, was painting biblical and mythological subjects, inspired by
his stay in Italy; for Italy was yet the field for art inspiration. He
received extended patronage from King George, and succeeded Reynolds
as president of the Royal Academy. “Christ Healing the Sick,” in the
Philadelphia Hospital, and the “Death
on the Pale Horse,” in the Pennsylvania
Academy, are two of his best known works
in America. The latter is an immense
canvas, melodramatic in character, and
carrying no direct message to modern
observers. West seems to have wished to
impress by size and industry. In regard
to color he always remained a Quaker.

THE GENEROSITY OF WEST

Perhaps West’s best contribution to
the art development of America was the
splendid generosity of his welcome to his
young compatriots when they came to
London to study. His was the hand that
gave them greeting, his the studio and the
home that were at their service, and his
the mind that directed their work. To him came Matthew Pratt of Philadelphia,
though his senior, and stayed four years, returning then to his native
place and carrying on his profession there. The Peales, father and son,
were indebted to him for their training. Dunlap and Trumbull and Stuart
all studied under his tutelage. Allston sat at his feet as a devout disciple,
becoming a veritable legatee of his mode of thought and of his manner.
This manner was evolved from a contemplation of grand subjects, allegorical,
religious, mythical, and historical. Neither he nor West was an
observer of the life of their day; though West did a radical thing, a great
service to natural art, when he painted the Death of Wolfe with all the
figures therein clad in the regimentals they then wore, and not in classic
garb, as historic happenings had hitherto been painted. His work had little
beauty of color, little atmosphere, and no spontaneity. It has not held its appreciation
as have other more natural paintings of that time. To Boston, in
1725, had come John Smybert, from London, a protégé of Bishop Berkeley.
He there painted many portraits until his death in 1751; though his work
had little merit. He was the forerunner of Copley, the first able native artist.

THE DISTINCTION OF COPLEY

MRS. DANIEL DENISON ROGERS

By Copley.

MRS. FORD

By Copley, in Hartford Athenæum.

In his youth Copley had the slight advantage of some instruction from
his stepfather, Peter Pelham, the engraver; but early acquired a style of
his own. His technic was
not very fluent; but his
design was good, his drawing
remarkably true, and
his characterization unusual.
A dignified formality
pervaded his canvases, as
befitted the sitters of his
native Boston. It is said
that a Copley portrait in
a New England family is
a certificate of aristocracy
and social standing. He
painted textures well,
though somewhat laboriously.
“Large ruffles,
heavy silks, silver buckles,
gold-embroidered vests, and powdered wigs are blent in our imagination
with the memory of patriot zeal and matronly influence,” writes Tuckerman.
But those adjuncts to the personality would not be so associated
with the patrician Colonials had not
Copley rendered them so well. None
of the early painters so accurately
gave the spirit of their time as he.
As we can glean from Lely’s portraits
of the beauties of the Carolean
Court the free and easy manners
that were its atmosphere, so
from Copley’s portraits we get the
moral atmosphere of that Colonial
time, with the reserve and self-respect
of its men and the virtue
and propriety of its women. He did
not go abroad until he was thirty-seven
years old. In England he was
well received, and had many commissions.
He was made an A. R.
A. in 1777, and a full academician
in 1779. Shortly after this he was
commissioned to paint “The Siege
of Gibraltar.” His son, Baron Lyndhurst,
became lord chancellor, and
collected many of his father’s works.

THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

By Matthew Pratt, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

THE PEALES, A FAMILY OF PAINTERS

BENJAMIN WEST

By Sir Thomas Lawrence, the English portrait painter.

Charles Willson Peale’s fame is almost wholly derived from his portraits
of Washington, of which he painted fourteen from life, extending
in time from 1772 to 1795. His earliest shows Washington in the uniform
of a British Colonial colonel, and is now in the possession of Washington
and Lee University.

Washington is known to have sat forty-four times to various painters.
Based on these comparatively few sittings have been more portrayals on
canvas than have been accorded to any man in history, with the possible
exception of Napoleon. A collection of engraved portraits of him has
been made which included over four thousand plates. Rembrandt Peale,
a son of Charles Willson Peale, contributed a cumulative fame to the
name, as he also painted Washington, as well as Jefferson, Dolly Madison,
and other political and
social leaders. He, as
well as his father and
his uncle, James Peale,
all worked at times in
miniature. In the work
of father and son there
was little merit, little
invention, but a creditable
craftsmanship.
They recorded the appearance
of the people
of their day with uninspired
fluency.

KING LEAR

By Benjamin West, in Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

THE ART OF
TRUMBULL

John Trumbull’s
standing, like Peale’s,
is attained largely on
his renderings of Washington. He had much opportunity for observing
the general, and this contributed much to the accuracy of his compositions,
but little to the fineness of his art. He is fortunate in having many of
his works gathered together in the Yale School of Fine Arts; for in the
aggregation they are impressive, as being a dignified and graphic presentment
of the important events of the Revolutionary period. These
canvases are not large. Indeed, much of his work was in the nature of
miniatures in oil. He made many careful studies from life of those persons
he introduced into his historical compositions. His picture of the signing
of the Declaration of Independence was painted in 1791, when most of
the signers were yet living, and from all of these he obtained sittings.
Claim has been made that he was the greatest of the early painters in
America. He was, in the sense of having made the truest record. But in
the sense of being the best according to our latterday conception of art, as
being something other than a labored and literal rendering of a fact, he was
inferior to both Copley and Stuart.

C. W. PEALE

Portrait by the painter, in the Pennsylvania Academy.

GILBERT STUART, MASTER
IN PORTRAITURE

In Gilbert Stuart we had the most
valuable art worker. His portraits,
while good records, had also beauty
and charm. His color was fresh and
brilliant. He gave his subjects poise
and personality. His pictures were
vital. He had not the faculty for design
and composition to the extent
of the great Englishmen, Reynolds
and Gainsborough; but he had a
technic that was not inferior. Fortunate
has been the nation that has
known its heroic founders through
the medium of Stuart’s picturing.
Indeed, much of our modern regard
for those heroes has been engendered
by these dignified yet very
human presentments. Of Philadelphia
families he was the true historian,
and of Boston society he
was the splendid chronicler that outshone its own Copley. In England,
after studying with West, he ranked high for several years in that, the
greatest period of English art. He returned to America in 1792, and after
spending two years in New York went to Philadelphia to paint Washington.

Apart from the several celebrated pictures of the first president, his
best work was done in the decade in which he resided in that city. It
has been the policy of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to acquire
as many of these works as possible. More than a score are now in its
possession, including portraits of Presidents Monroe and Madison, and
the famous Dolly Madison canvas. Stuart painted as many as three
sets of the first five presidents, one of which was destroyed by fire in
Washington. One set is now privately owned in Boston. What is known
as the Lansdowne portrait is in the Philadelphia gallery. In design and
general impressiveness, though not in features, it is one of the most satisfactory
of all the presidential picturings. The Gibbs-Channing portrait,
now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is
the finest in facial modeling. Stuart made many
replicas of the few Washingtons he painted from
life—especially was this so of the Athenæum head.
Much controversy has arisen as to which of the
many Washington portraits is the most accurate.
The fact of the absolute dimensions of any feature
is of little moment to later generations. What is
of greatest moment is the poise, the nobility, the
grandeur, the serenity, the faith, the wisdom, the
Homeric mold, of the man, and these a grateful
people has come to think were intimated more
fully by Stuart than by any of the other portrayers.

WASHINGTON TAKING LEAVE OF HIS GENERALS

By Trumbull, in the Yale School of Fine Arts.

JOHN TRUMBULL

Painted by himself.

STUART’S PORTRAITS OF WOMEN

Stuart is quoted as saying “Houdon’s bust is the best, and after that,
my portrait.” We can well be content to accept these as the two ideal
renderings. It has been claimed that he was not very successful in portraying
female beauty. This is a contention that is hard to controvert.
He did not prettify his sitters in the way Lawrence did; but he surely
made them humanly lovely. Rebecca Smith, Anne Bingham, Frances
Cadwalader, Elizabeth Bordley, and Sallie McKean, all reputedly handsome
in the written testimony of that period, have certainly not suffered
in that repute by Stuart’s painting of them. And Betsy Patterson, she
of the wilful temperament and romantic career, who married the brother
of an emperor, lives for all time as a beauty because of the ability of
Stuart. Of this handsome woman a contemporary writes, “Mme. Jerome
Bonaparte is a model of fashion, and many of our belles strive to
imitate her; but without equal éclat, as Madame has certainly the most
beautiful back and shoulders that ever were
seen,” and again, “To her mental gifts
were added the beauty of a Greek, yet
glowing, type, which not even the pencil of
Stuart adequately portrayed in the exquisite
portrait that he wished might be
buried with him: not yet on his other canvas
which, with its dainty head in triple
pose of loveliness, still smiles in unfading
witchery.” Whether or no he painted her
as lovely as life, he produced a canvas
that has great individuality and charm.

ELIZABETH BEALE BORDLEY

MRS. WM. JACKSON

FRANCES CADWALADER

Women’s portraits by Stuart.

THE GIBBS-CHANNING PORTRAIT OF
WASHINGTON

By Stuart, in Metropolitan Museum, N. Y.

THE CULTURE OF ALLSTON

Washington Allston had a great reputation
in his day; but his product was inconsiderable
and not of a quality to justify
the standing he then had. He had greater
culture and a finer intellectuality than
perhaps any other artist in the United States in its first century.
His was a sensitive nature. He lived in the spirit. For the high, the
lovely, the perfect, he strove all his days. Yet that high ideality and that
earnest striving had little effect on the art of his time. He was honored
by his literary contemporaries; but his work was not emulated to any extent
by his fellow artists. His work was an intellectual expression. Its
tradition was continued by Thomas Cole, who painted landscape
as an allegorical message.

Allston was born near Charleston,
South Carolina, spent his
youth at Newport, where he became
intimate with Malbone,
and after graduating from Harvard
went abroad to study. The
Italians attracted him; but he
found his way to London, where
he associated with Coleridge and
other literary celebrities. He
was made an A. R. A.; but
returned soon thereafter to Boston,
working there from 1818
to his death in 1843. He laid
much stress on his technical
processes in painting. His pictures
had none of the spontaneous
quality of his sketches
and studies. His was an art
totally at variance with the
mode of the present day. We
feel in Copley’s canvases a
very modern quality, and in most of Stuart’s, but not in Allston’s.

ELIZABETH PATTERSON,
MME. JEROME BONAPARTE

By Stuart.

VANDERLYN AND SULLY

A more modern man, though not so celebrated, was John Vanderlyn,
a native of Kingston, New York, who spent many years in Paris. He
had aspiration after beauty for its own sake. His Ariadne, owned
by the Pennsylvania Academy, was really the first important
nude painted here. Such subjects in those days caused much protest.
This artist’s life was a stern struggle against adverse conditions; though he
greatly deserved success. In the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington
is his Landing of Columbus, a work that does not well represent his
ability. His portrait work carried through the traditions of the Revolutionary
days to that period of the early half of the nineteenth century
when Thomas Sully and Henry Inman were the leaders. The latter was
born in Utica in 1801, and lived but forty-five
years. His work was uneven, but at its best,
as in the Henry Pratt portrait in the Pennsylvania
Academy, is comparable to Raeburn. He
painted Wordsworth, Macaulay, Dr. Chalmers,
and other men of mark in England, on commissions
from their American admirers. Though
Sully was a pupil of Stuart, he entirely lacked the
master’s authority of manner. His was a timid
technic, without freshness of color or firm characterization.
His life was a long and successful
one, spent chiefly in Philadelphia, and he had
many celebrities as sitters,—Queen Victoria,
Fanny Kemble, and General Jackson are among
his best known canvases. Of the work of
Sully the Pennsylvania Academy has, besides several portraits of
the artist himself, a large number of his canvases. This policy of the
chief galleries of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, of acquiring works
of the several worthy artists of the older time, has become a more difficult
one to follow as the years go
on, and the ancestral portrait, the
family heirloom, becomes precious
beyond price.

THE BEGINNING OF AMERICAN
MINIATURE PAINTING

WASHINGTON ALLSTON

Miniature by Malbone, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts.

DEAD MAN RESTORED TO LIFE BY TOUCHING
BONES OF PROPHET ELISHA

By Allston, Pennsylvania Academy.

Treasured with even greater
reverence is the old time miniature.
There was no production
of this form of art in the
Colonial days, but its practice
developed after the Revolution,
and had its chief exponent in Malbone,
who, though living but from
1777 to 1807, is to this day one of
the very best artists of the portrait
in little. Excellent draftsmanship
as well as good coloring gave
his work a structural firmness unusual
even in Cosway’s productions.
His best known picture was
an imaginative composition entitled
“The Hours,” which is now
in the Athenæum at Providence,
R. I. Through his friendship
with Allston, Malbone
accompanied him to Charleston
in 1800, and there
painted miniatures of prominent
South Carolinians, including
Mrs. Ralph Izard,
the beautiful Alice Delancey,
who had been previously
pictured by both Copley and
Gainsborough. Other beautiful
women he painted were
Rachel and Rebecca Gratz
of Philadelphia, the latter
being the inspiration for Rebecca
in Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” Allston
wrote of Malbone, “He had the happy talent of
elevating the character without impairing the likeness.
This was remarkable in his male heads, and
no woman ever lost beauty under his hand.” In Charleston at that
time was Charles Fraser, a miniaturist of much ability, whose work
is now sought by collectors. As the nineteenth century progressed
the portrait gradually lost its preëminence, and the landscape, the
story telling picture subject, and later the composition painted for
its own sake became the chief expressions of the American artist.

JOHN VANDERLYN

Painted by himself, Metropolitan
Museum, N. Y.

EDWARD G. MALBONE

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Editorial

We have been asked more than once
how the schedule of The Mentor is planned
and how our subjects are selected. The
question is a good one, for in the answer
is to be found the basic idea on which The
Mentor plan is established. If the schedules
were prepared hastily and without due
thought, and if the subjects were selected
solely with consideration to the interest of
the passing moment, The Mentor plan
would have no more claim upon thoughtful
and intelligent people than the most
ephemeral journalistic enterprise. As a
matter of fact, however, the schedule of
The Mentor is prepared for more than a
year in advance, and the plan is worked
out on broad lines of general education—and
not with the thought of merely reflecting
the interest of the hour.

Of course, in some matters we observe
timeliness. Our article on Abraham Lincoln
will be published during the week in which
Lincoln’s birthday occurs. Professor McElroy’s
article on George Washington
will appear on February 23rd. The
advantage of selecting proper dates for
these articles is obvious. In general, however,
we arrange the schedule so as to give
a just balance of subjects, and we endeavor
to follow a certain mental logic in distributing
the subjects through the year.

And now we are asked how the schedule
is made up. The selection of subjects begins
with the editors. After considerable
study a list is made that is large enough
to form the basis of more than a year’s
reading. This list is divided into departments,
and the subjects in each department
are submitted to the member of our
Editorial Board who has that department
in charge. In a number of cases changes
are made and new subjects are suggested
by the members of the Advisory Board.
Not only are the subjects of the articles determined
under their supervision, but the
names of the writers are often suggested by
them, and in many cases the illustrations
are selected under their direction. The
association of the members of the Advisory
Board with the Editors of The Mentor is
close and continuous. We give the readers
of The Mentor the direct benefits of
this association.

But our answer would be incomplete if
it failed to include mention of a most interesting
source of suggestion—the readers
of The Mentor. It is a great pleasure
to say this, for it is the best evidence in
the world of the coöperative spirit that
exists in The Mentor Association. That
is the spirit we seek.

We have had some of the most valuable
suggestions from Mentor readers. Only
last week we received a letter from an interested
reader who had been following
the historical articles in The Mentor. She
wanted to know what we had in store for
a lover of history. She suggested that it
would be interesting to take up history
from several special points of view—the
great historic rivers for example. The idea
is good. Think of the historic value and
of the human interest in the story of the
Rhine; the story of the Nile; the story of
the Danube; the story of the Mississippi!
The great rivers of the world have borne
some of the most important historic events
along on their currents. We are planning
a set of articles on this subject.

This is but one case in which a reader of
The Mentor has helped us. We could cite
many others. And in acknowledging them
we want to express our heartfelt appreciation
of the earnest interest shown by
our readers in The Mentor. Our mail
brims over with it every day.

LADY WENTWORTH, by John Singleton Copley—Lenox Library, N. Y.

ONE

The parentage of John Singleton Copley was Irish.
He was born in America. The most active years of
his art career were spent in England. About the
time of his birth in Boston, July 3, 1737, his father
died, and the boy was named after his grandfather on his
mother’s side, John Singleton of Quinville Abbey, County
Clare. After ten years his mother married
Peter Pelham, a painter and mezzotint engraver.
From him Copley received instruction
and encouragement in art. But
Pelham died when Copley was fourteen,
and the boy had then to be his own master.
He was living in Boston at a time when
Boston had but 18,000 inhabitants. His
skill in painting gained him renown through-out
the city. He was a handsome, brilliant
young man, dressing and living in style,
and moving in the best society. Within
the limited range of New England life he
played something of the part that Van
Dyck in his time played in the larger world
of Holland and England.

When Copley was thirty-two years old
he married the daughter of a wealthy merchant,
Richard Clark. His father-in-law
was the agent of the East India Company,
to whom later was consigned that historic
cargo of tea which was flung into Boston
Harbor. Expecting trouble with England,
young Copley, who was now a thoroughly
successful painter, went to Rome for a
year’s stay; but in 1775 he took up his
residence in London. He was received in
a kindly and appreciative way by the
great painter, Benjamin West, and soon
became popular with the art loving public.
After two years’ residence he was made an
associate member of the Royal Academy.
He became a full Academician in 1779,
after exhibiting his most famous picture,
the “Death of Chatham.”

Copley’s life was one of success and happiness.
For him there were no struggles,
and no embittering disappointments. His
wife was beautiful and attractive, and they
drew about them, in their home, a set of
interesting and distinguished people. Their
house on Beacon Hill was surrounded by
eleven acres of land, which he called “Copley’s
Farm,” and in which he took great
pride and satisfaction. The Revolutionary
War was naturally a matter of great concern
to Copley, living as he was among
English friends; but he remained steadfastly
loyal to the land of his birth, and
rejoiced at the issue of the war. As the
Revolution closed Copley was working on
the portrait of Elkanah Watson, and in December,
1782, he and Watson listened together
to King George’s speech recognizing
America’s independence. In the background
of the Watson portrait Copley had
introduced a ship, and when the two returned
to Copley’s house after hearing the
king’s speech, the artist painted on the
ship’s mast the first American flag displayed
in England.

Copley died in 1815, full of years and of
honors. His son became Lord Chancellor
Lyndhurst.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

CHRIST REJECTED, by Benjamin West—Pennsylvania Academy

TWO

The career of Benjamin West has often been cited as
a triumphant demonstration of genius, which like
lightning, strikes where it will and develops in the
most uncongenial surroundings. He was born in
1738 at Springfield, a little Pennsylvania settlement, and in
his childhood he knew the rigor of frontier life. He was the
youngest child of a large family. When
six years old, he began to draw with
pen and ink, showing the first signs of an
inclination to art. A year afterward a
party of friendly Indians, amazed at the
sketches of birds and flowers that the boy
made, taught young West to prepare the
red and yellow colors with which they
painted their ornaments, Mrs. West furnished
indigo; house cats furnished the
fur to make brushes; and with these primitive
materials the boy West produced some
paintings that showed real worth. As a
result a box of paints was sent to him from
Philadelphia by a relative. His delight
knew no bounds, and a few days later he
set out to visit his relative in Philadelphia,
a Mr. Pennington, who brought him in
touch with the artist Williams. The boy’s
interest and enthusiasm about art impressed
Williams, who asked him if he had
read any books. Finding that young
West’s reading was limited to the Bible,
the young artist lent him the works of
Dufresnoy (Doo-frayn-wah) and Richardson
on painting. These books gave the boy
the idea of an artist’s career, and soon
afterward his skill brought him his first
money.

At the end of West’s Philadelphia
studies the question of settling him in some
profession came up, and as a result there
was a solemn scene in the sober Quaker
home of his parents, with discourses, prayers,
and final dedication of the youth to art.

So launched, Benjamin West left home,
and worked as a portrait painter first in
Philadelphia and then in New York. In
1760, when he was twenty-two, he went
to Italy for study, and remained there for
three years. Then he settled in London,
and success came to him rapidly. He was
soon known as one of the leading portrait
and historical painters of the time. In
1772 he was appointed court historical
painter. He became one of the first members
of the Royal Academy; and later he
had conferred upon him the final crown of
art distinction when, after the death of
Joshua Reynolds, he was elected president
of the academy.

Benjamin West in his old age was surrounded
by a group of enthusiastic and
talented young students. Washington
Allston was a pupil of his, Copley too, and
many other artists who afterward attained
world wide fame. He died at London
in 1820.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

GEORGE WASHINGTON, by Charles Willson Peale—Metropolitan Museum, N. Y.

THREE

Peale has been a well known name in American art
for one hundred and fifty years. Charles Willson
Peale, who lived from 1741 to 1827, was celebrated
especially for his portraits of Washington and other
famous men of the time. James Peale, his brother, who lived
during about the same period, painted two portraits of Washington,
one of which is in possession of the
New York Historical Society, and the
other in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
He also made a number of landscapes and
historical pictures. Rembrandt Peale, the
son of Charles Willson Peale, lived from
1778 until 1860. He too was a portrait
painter, and among his works is an equestrian
portrait of Washington, now in Independence
Hall. Two brothers of Rembrandt
Peale were artists likewise.

So when anyone speaks of the “American
painter Peale” some further definition is
needed, and when a portrait of Washington
by Peale is mentioned it is important to
know which Peale was the painter.

Charles Willson Peale, the most celebrated
of them all, was born in Queen
Anne County, Maryland, in April, 1741.
His boyhood was spent at Chestertown,
and then at Annapolis, where at thirteen
years he was apprenticed to a saddler.
He was twenty-three years old before he
began to study art. His first teacher was
a Swedish painter, Hessellius. Peale’s
progress was rapid. He sought out the
master painter, John Singleton Copley, in
Boston, studied under him for three years,
then went to London and became a pupil
of Benjamin West. In 1770 he established
himself in Philadelphia, and his studio soon
became famous. Two years after he
reached Philadelphia he painted a three-quarter-length
picture of Washington in
the uniform of a Virginian military colonel.
This is the earliest known portrait of the
great commander. It is now in the chapel
of Washington and Lee University.

Peale painted a number of paintings of
Washington and two miniatures of Mrs.
Washington. When the Revolution broke
out the artist turned soldier, raising a
militia company of which he was finally
made captain, and, as such, fought in the
battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Germantown.
He afterward entered the Pennsylvania
Assembly, where he was known as
one of the first abolitionists. He voted
against slavery, and freed his own slaves.

Beloved and esteemed, Peale lived to be
eighty-six years old, enjoying a distinction
in art shared only by a few other American
painters. His name is identified chiefly
with portraits of Washington. By an odd
coincidence, the month and day of his
death were the same as that of Washington’s
birth. He died at his home near
Germantown on February 22, 1827.

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DOLLY MADISON, by Gilbert Stuart—Pennsylvania Academy

FOUR

To many Gilbert Stuart is known as the “painter of
Washington.” We know Washington today as
Trumbull and Stuart have painted him, and Stuart
has been aptly called the “prime painter to the
president.” According to an anecdote, Stuart was said to
regard Washington as his own particular subject, and valued
him as any workman might a “pay envelope.”
Whenever he lacked in income he
could always paint a “Washington head”
and get his price for it. Gilbert Stuart was
born at North Kingston, Rhode Island, in
December, 1755. He studied at Newport
for awhile, then in 1775 he went to England
and studied under Benjamin West. Four
years were all that Stuart needed for study,
even under this master. He set up his own
studio in London, and from the beginning
found success. Indeed, it came to him so
quickly that Stuart was tempted into outrunning
it, and was soon beyond his means
and in financial difficulties.

In 1788 Stuart found it expedient to slip
away to Dublin. When there he found
success anew, and remained in Ireland for
five years. Then he returned to America,
enticed by the commission to paint General
Washington. Experienced as he was
at that time, Stuart confessed to genuine
embarrassment in facing Washington for
the first time. He said that though he had
painted King George III and the future
George IV, had painted Louis XVI and
many others among the great, he had never
been disconcerted until he found himself in
the presence of the American general. As
a result his first portrait was a failure.
But Washington sat again for him, and the
result was the famous head on the unfinished
canvas, now known as the “Athenæum”
portrait. The Stuart portraits of
Washington are famous the world over;
so much so that some overlook the splendid
work that Stuart has done in portraiture
for other celebrated men of America—John
Adams, Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, and the rest, the list including
nearly all the notables of his time. Stuart
was more than a good technical painter.
He was a portrait maker in the finest sense.
He studied character, and his portraits are
living people.

In his art work and his associations Gilbert
Stuart was a man of great simplicity.
His habits were sometimes a shock to his
more fastidious art friends. When Trumbull
in 1780 came to Benjamin West, the
latter referred him to Gilbert Stuart for
painting materials and casts to work with.
He found Stuart, as he states, “dressed in
an old black coat with one half torn off
the hip and pinned up, looking more like a
beggar than a painter.” Trumbull, whose
idea of what was fit for an artist had been
gained from establishments like those of
Copley and West was much upset. But
he soon learned to appreciate the great
painter under the shabby habit.

Stuart is recognized not only as a leader
in American art, but as one of the greatest
portrait painters. His last years were
spent in Boston, where he died in July,
1828.

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ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by John Trumbull—Metropolitan Museum. N. Y.

FIVE

John Trumbull was the youngest of six children
of Jonathan Trumbull, who was once governor of
Connecticut. To him George Washington gave the
name of “Brother Jonathan,” a name that has now
become a national personification. Whether the people deliberately
adopted this name in order to apply it to our national
type is a subject of some discussion; but
it is a fact that Washington called Trumbull
“Brother Jonathan,” and it is a fact
that many affectionately employed the
term thereafter as a familiar name for the
United States. So its origin in the incident
seems probable at least.

John Trumbull was born at Lebanon,
Connecticut, in 1756. He was a sickly
child, with a mind more active than his
body, an infant prodigy of learning, who
qualified to enter college at twelve. He
actually did enter Harvard in the middle
of the junior year at the age of fifteen.
His delicate health and his extreme youth
prevented his making many close college
friends. He spent his spare money on
French lessons, and his spare time studying
pictures in the fine art books that he
could find in the college library. When a
student he visited Copley, and became
imbued with the great painter’s ideas of the
dignity of an artist’s life.

After graduation in 1773 Trumbull tried
to paint with home-made materials. His
art studies and experiments were interrupted
by the opening of the Revolution.
When war with England became imminent
Trumbull began training the young men
of the school and village, and, after the
battle of Lexington, when the first regiment
of Connecticut troops was formed,
he was made adjutant. Afterward he became
second aide-de-camp to General
Washington, and when General Gates took
command of the northern department he
appointed Trumbull adjutant general, with
rank of colonel, and in that capacity he
took part in the unfortunate expedition to
Albany and Ticonderoga. He resigned
from the army in 1780 and went to London
to study art under Benjamin West. Then
came the news of the arrest and execution
of Major André, which stirred England,
and suggested the arrest of John Trumbull
because he had been an officer of similar
rank in the American army. He was imprisoned
for seven months. In 1784 he was
once more studying under West, and when
there painted his two great pictures, the
“Battle of Bunker Hill,” and the “Death
of Montgomery.” In 1785 Trumbull
visited Paris, and it was when there that
he began his picture which is perhaps the
most famous of all his work, the signing of
“The Declaration of Independence.”

The years thereafter were active ones
for Trumbull. He produced many portraits
of celebrated men, and many historic
paintings that still hold leading places in
the national art of America.

In 1794 Trumbull acted as secretary to
John Jay in London during the negotiations
for the treaty between America and
Great Britain. He was a man of prominence
in public life, a leader in art in both
England and America. He was president
of the American Academy of Fine Arts
from 1816 until 1825, and he died in New
York, November 10, 1843.

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SPANISH GIRL, by Washington Allston—Metropolitan Museum, N. Y.

SIX

The standard bearer of the group of young artists
who studied under Benjamin West was Washington
Allston. Although several years of Allston’s active
life were spent in England, he was a native American,
and was born in the Waccamaw region of South Carolina
in 1779. Allston’s father married twice, and the painter was
the son of the second wife. His father died
when Allston was only two years old, and
when he was seven his mother married Dr.
Henry C. Flagg of Newport, who was chief
of the medical staff of General Greene’s
army.

Allston as a boy showed unusual ability
for drawing, and he was fortunate in finding
in Newport two friends to assist and
encourage him. In particular there was a
boy named Malbone, two years his senior,
who was already beginning to paint miniatures,
and in after years became known as
Edward G. Malbone, a famous painter of
portraits. The friendship with Malbone
had much influence on Allston’s nature.
They remained good friends through life,
and gave to each other and took from each
other the riches of sympathy and understanding
that lie in an art kinship.

At college Allston showed himself a
genuine boy, full of animal spirits. He
joined in college pranks, and got the most
that college life could give in fun and
friendship. He was in short a radiant
young man, graceful, handsome, with blue
eyes, silky black hair, and pale, clear complexion.
He was liked and honored by all
his fellow students, cordial to all, yet with
a certain aristocratic distinction that
marked him as one of finer nature. He
loved not art alone, but literature and romance.
His verses were creditable, and
brought him the honor of being elected
class poet.

He graduated at Harvard in 1800, and
for awhile studied art in Charlestown with
Malbone. In 1801 Allston went to London
with Malbone. He entered the Royal
Academy, and became a pupil of West.
Allston admired West enthusiastically, and
got from him not only instruction but inspiration.
From 1804 until 1809 Allston
was a traveler in Europe, spending part of
the time in Paris and part in Italy, and
when he returned to his native country in
1809 he had already established himself
among the painters of his day.

From 1811 until 1817 he lived and
worked in England, and when there he
came to realize his full powers. He had
developed greatly, not only in artistic and
poetic fields, but in religious convictions.
And not only in painting but in writing he
showed great ability. Coleridge, who was
for years a close friend, pronounced him a
leader in the art and thought of his time.

Allston was elected an associate of the
Royal Academy in 1819, after having just
returned to America. He spent the remaining
years of his life in Boston and in
Cambridge, where he died in July, 1843.
His paintings are to be seen in a number
of the prominent galleries of this country
and England. The most celebrated of
them are religious in nature.

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ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
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