Rembrandt Peale ALS Mentioning Trip to Boston, Where He Would Study Gilbert Stuart's George Washington Portrait

A 1p autograph letter signed by American painter Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) as "Rembrandt Peale" at lower right. Written in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 24, 1857. Docketed by the letter recipient verso. Expected paper folds and a few scattered staple holes at top. Uneven toning and minor ink bleed-through from the docket affecting only Peale's inscription of the date in the upper right hand corner. A slightly deckled right edge suggests the paper may have been bifold at one time. Else very good to near fine. 4.875" x 7.375." Provenance: Ex-Noel Goldblatt (ca. 1926-2003) of the famous Goldblatt's Department Store, to a prominent Los Angeles, California collector.

Rembrandt Peale wrote this letter to John Durand (1822-1908), the editor of a short-lived New York City-based arts journal called "The Crayon: A Journal Devoted to the Graphic Arts, and the Literature Related to Them." Peale, who was an occasional journal contributor, declined Durand's invitation to write an article about an unidentified American artist named Mills, citing a former commitment to travel to Boston.

Peale wrote in part, "I have received your Newspaper extracts concerning Mills, for which I thank you in my own account But as I am just about to start for Boston, cannot now make an article on the subject…As the Crayon is now published by Mr. Hollingsworth - have you instructed him always to send me two imprints of my communications? If not, please do - I shall write you from Boston…"

In August and September 1857, Peale journeyed to Boston, Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut in order to study two of the most famous portraits of George Washington executed from life. These were Gilbert Stuart's 1796 portrait, sometimes called the Athenaeum Portrait, and John Trumbull's 1792 "General George Washington at Trenton," today on display at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Rembrandt Peale had himself painted a portrait of George Washington from life over 60 years before, in 1795 as a 17-year-old pupil of his father, the famous artist Charles Wilson Peale. After 1822, it became Rembrandt Peale's mission to execute the most accurate, true-to-life-and-spirit versions of Washington portraits, in order to create a "standard likeness" of the Founding Father. Rembrandt Peale's 1824 "Patriae Pater" portrait of George Washington now displayed in the Old Senate Chamber at the Capitol is seen as his masterpiece (the painting is sometimes referred to as the "porthole" painting because of its distinctive oval trompe l'oeil frame.) But evidently, 30 years later, Peale was still working towards a more perfect portrait of Washington.

John Durand co-edited "The Crayon" with William James Stillman during its initial years of publication, from 1855-1856, later becoming the sole editor from 1857 to about 1861. Durand was the son of noted American landscape painter Asher B. Durand. "The Crayon" was published by one W. Hollingsworth after April 1857; Hollingsworth had been recruited to "manage the business department" of the periodical, as the journal itself explained in an early issue. Though "The Crayon" proved short-lived, it was by all accounts an extremely popular antebellum arts journal. Rembrandt Peale, John Ruskin, Asher B. Durand, and other artists and art critics submitted material to the journal, and it discussed architecture, painting, landscape gardening, art exhibitions, art books, and art gossip.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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