Rembrandt Peale - Biography - Works

Works

In 1801, Rembrandt painted a portrait of his brother Rubens, youngest of the six Peale children, who always had an admiration for gardening and tending to natural life. Rembrandt seated his brother next to a geranium. The painting signifies the artist’s admiration for a sibling’s love of nature, and may have been inspired by the Dutch 17th century artist, David Teniers the Younger, who had painted a series of oil-on-copper paintings representing the five senses. His painting, "Smell" is quite similar to Rembrandt Peale’s. Rembrandt's piece captures the essence of a young gardener/artist’s peace of mind, gracefully looking out, a posture of wonder and calmness.

In 1824 Peale painted the Patriæ Pater, in which a rectangle supporting an oval wreath surrounds the eye-catching image of George Washington. The most successful painting of Peale's 50-year career, it inspired John Marshall to have his portrait done by Peale in the same fashion. The painting was criticized as lacking authenticity, as it was not completed until after Washington's death (1799). Nonetheless, Peale received commendations for his portrait by many noted politicians such as Washington’s nephew, Judge Bushrod Washington, who was an associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and Marshall.

Peale's neoclassical painting The Roman Daughter depicts a young girl shielding her father, a prisoner in chains, and feeding him from her breast. This piece demonstrates compassion and graceful defense; his copy of Correggio's Angel, and his immense allegorical painting, Court of Death (1820), reveal the same artistic style.

Read more about this topic:  Rembrandt Peale, Biography

Famous quotes containing the word works:

    Night and Day ‘ve been tampered with,
    Every quality and pith
    Surcharged and sultry with a power
    That works its will on age and hour.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    All his works might well enough be embraced under the title of one of them, a good specimen brick, “On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History.” Of this department he is the Chief Professor in the World’s University, and even leaves Plutarch behind.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    My first childish doubt as to whether God could really be a good Protestant was suggested by my observation of the deplorable fact that the best voices available for combination with my mother’s in the works of the great composers had been unaccountably vouchsafed to Roman Catholics.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)