Portrait of James W. de Peyster
Artist:
Charles Willson Peale
(American, 1741 - 1827)
Place made:United States
Date: 1798
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
29 3/4 x 25 in. (75.6 x 63.5 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Dorothea C. Oppenheimer and family, in loving memory of Frederic J. Oppenheimer
Object number: 2008.20
Signed: Signed and dated lower left: conjoined initials C.WPeale/Painted 1798'
Signed and inscribed on reverse: 'James W. DePeyster painted when 53 years'
Provenance: James W. DePeyster, New York, 1798.
Private collection, by descent.
Christie's, New York. 19 May 2005, lot 86.
Private collection, acquired from the above.
Estate of the above.
Label Text
This set of portraits is all about marriage. The pleasant pair who regard the viewer, attired fashionably but not extravagantly, are New Yorkers Anna and James De Peyster, married first cousins. Their likenesses were captured thanks to another union—the marriage of James’ niece Elizabeth to the Philadelphia-based painter Charles Willson Peale in 1791. In 1798, Peale, Elizabeth and several of their children stayed with her uncle and aunt in New York, prompting the commission of several family portraits.
Charles Willson Peale was one of early America’s most active artistic and cultural entrepreneurs. Besides his career as a painter, he founded art schools and museums in several U.S. cities, and tirelessly advocated for the importance of art in the new nation’s public life. He also taught many of his large family to become artists, including his brother James and son Rembrandt, both represented in the Museum’s collections.
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2014)
Charles Willson Peale was one of early America’s most active artistic and cultural entrepreneurs. Besides his career as a painter, he founded art schools and museums in several U.S. cities, and tirelessly advocated for the importance of art in the new nation’s public life. He also taught many of his large family to become artists, including his brother James and son Rembrandt, both represented in the Museum’s collections.
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2014)
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The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
