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Lot 145
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Rembrandt Peale 38 pg. handwritten lecture discussing the history of art in Europe and America, including his father's most important painting: "He was the friend of Washington, of whom he painted the first Portrait..." Both father and son were best known for their portraits of George Washington
Rembrandt Peale 38 pg. handwritten lecture discussing the history of art in Europe and America, including his father's most important painting: "He was the friend of Washington, of whom he painted the first Portrait..." Both father and son were best known for their portraits of George Washington
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Description:

Peale Rembrandt

Fine content autograph manuscript signed twice, "Rembrandt Peale," 38 pages, 7.75" x 12.75", [no place, no date, but circa 1838], titled in his hand on the cover "Lecture on the Fine Arts by Rembrandt Peale," and again on the first page. Peale's formal lecture covers 27 pages and includes several corrections, some of which have been applied to slips of appear and pasted over the original text. Peale's formal lecture is followed by an additional eleven pages of "Notes. Not to make he Lecture too long for delivery the following passages were taken out & subjoined in the form of Notes." Pages overall quite clean with an occasional contemporary ink smudge (and a few contemporary red watercolor paint marks), several pages bear minor marginal chips, outer wraps creased and separated from bound pages, else fine condition overall. Housed in a custom clamshell case bound in 3/4 blue morocco. 


Peale offers a wide-ranging discussion on art history and theory replete with a reference to his father's status as the first painter of George Washington. He broaches the subject in the context of a discussion of the fact that prior to the American Revolution, the British colonies had produced but a few artists (most notably John S. Copley and Benjamin West), all of whom found it necessary to travel to Europe to earn crucial training and patronage: "here I may be indulged for mentioning a fact that worthy of Note in the History of our Arts; that my father, Charles Wilson Peale, after studying two years with Mr. West, in London, returned in 1771, and was during fifteen years the only Painter of any known standing in all this Western world — having sitters for Portraits from Canada & the West Indies — This continued till the year 1785, when the versatility of his genius tempted him into the fields of Natural History, making his name better known among Naturalists than it has been among Painters; Yet the Portraits of distinguished Men, begun during the War of the Revolution, many of which now decorate the Hall of Independence, will perpetuate both his patriotism & his name among the Artists of his Country. He was the friend of Washington, of whom he painted the first Portrait — and many others." 

As a whole, the lecture, which was designed for the consumption of a generalist audience, focused on the rapid expansion of the arts and culture in the United States as well as the gradual democratization of the arts in general. Peale opened with this passage, noting: "The Fine Arts comprehend Painting, Sculpture, Engraving & Architecture; to which some persons add Music, the Drama & Gardening. I shall not attempt to discuss the merits of this classification, but confine my observations to those branches, which are based upon Design or Drawing. They have been denominated the Polite or Fine Arts, by our English progenitors, to distinguish them from the Mechanic Arts; tho' these are often fine. In France & Italy they possess more attractive titles, & are held up to admiration as the Beautiful Arts; & in Spain, when that Country ranked the highest among civilized Nations, they were dignified & honored as the Noble Arts, none but noblemen being permitted to practice them, & even a title of Nobility conferred on every distinguished Artist that come among them. As these Arts contribute to refine the gross materials of Society, let them be regarded as fine & polite; as they embellish our houses & gratify our taste, let them be cherished, because they are beautiful; and as they exalt the affections above all vulgar & low propensities, let them still continue to be esteemed Noble, even by Republicans…" 

Peale proudly noted that the young republic, which had for many generations took cultural and scientific direction from Europe was beginning to make her own contributions—the two most prominent of which were spearheaded by artists: "And in not a few instances have we given them [Europe] our Improvements & inventions — among which the Navigation by Steam, & the intercourse of mind by the Electric Telegraph — both accomplished by American Painters — are the proudest boast of modern times." 

Bringing artistic refinement to the comparatively rustic United States would prove more challenging. But the sixty year old nation was beginning to show signs of improvement despite continued resistance from those with the means to support the arts. Peale recalled that several years before "the first attempt was made in our Country in the old Bank of the United States, to introduce a taste for Architectural display. The Novelty of its Masses surprised the town & disturbed the simplicity of our richest Merchants, who had been only extravagant enough to support the miniature pediments of their front doors on ten inch Columns. The Pennsylvania Bank soon followed, to enrich a more ample space, & to gratify the pride of its accomplished Architect, notwithstanding the mortification he often experienced, and especially on one occasion, form an eminent Merchant, who would not commend the building, saying that he was 'No friend to the fine Arts — He was a friend to the Coarse Arts.['] This Latrobe thought a very coarse & illiberal sentiment; but he had the honor of a fellow feeling with King George the second, who said that he 'hated Boetry & Bainting.' Since that period a taste for architecture has been rapidly spreading in our country; & Latrobe’s Capitol, now being enlarged to an Imperial grandeur; Walter’s exquisite Girard College, and numerous examples of Gothic architecture, are differing principles of the purest taste, enslaved to no exclusive system, but leaving to architecture the same liberty of expression, that is allowed in the variations & Refinements of language…" 

This early modern republicanism that allowed this "liberty of expression" was also related to a renewed appreciation for classical art and design, largely inspired by excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum during the eighteenth century. Peale observed that the diggings upended numerous assumptions concerning the artistic abilities of ancient Rome. For example, "It was a long time the opinion of the learned that the Ancient Greeks & Romans, excellent as they were in Architecture & Sculpture, were inferior in Painting & know nothing of Anatomy, Perspective, Grouping & Colouring. This judgment was founded on the Paintings discovered in the Ruins of Pompeii, but few of which ranked above Mediocrity. It was my good fortune to visit Pompeii, when on the walls of a Lawyer's dwelling near the Forum, were discovered Paintings of exquisite beauty; proving beyond doubt, that the Antients [sic] were profoundly acquainted with all the principles of Art; perfection of Anatomical details, linear & aerial perspective, with excellence of Colouring & Mastery of pencil." 

Peale's lecture concluded with a poem by Charles Swain, entitled "On Painting," and followed by eleven pages of additional discursive notes that he deemed too tedious for presentation. Peale delivered this lecture on at lest twice: first on January 3, 1839 at the Philadelphia Museum, (tickets were 24¢ or five for $1.00) and then again on February 6, 1840 at the Broadway Tabernacle hosted by the New York Lyceum ( Public Ledger, Philadelphia, December 3, 1838, p. 5; Evening Post, New York, November 8, 1839, p. 2). 

One of Peale's motivations was pecuniary. The Panic of 1837 placed the chronically indebted artist into dire straits. Commissions for portraits dried up, and Peale found himself unable to move his existing inventory of paintings—despite vastly reduced prices. (Miller, p. 226) Lectures offered an additional source for Peale, where he leveraged his celebrity, and his family's association with George Washington and other figures of the American Revolution to attract audiences. 

His broader motivation to write and deliver this lecture stemmed from a desire to improve the state of art education in America. At around the time he composed this lecture, he had renewed his acquaintance with Alexander Dallas Bache, Benjamin Franklin's great grandson, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania who had been recently named President of the newly-established Girard College in Philadelphia. Having recently returned from Switzerland where he had become familiar with the educational philosophy of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Bache was eager to test new methods as was Peale (Lillian B. Miller, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860. 1992, p. 226-228)

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