Art and Revolution

Question 1

Answer 1

Benjamin West, Charles Willson Peale, c. 1767

Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827)

• Born in Maryland, started painting by the 1760s
• Was in Boston and met Copley in 1765
• Studies with Benjamin West c. 1767-69.
• Moves to Philadelphia in 1776.
• Serves in the militia during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783).
• After revolution is commissioned to paint full-length portrait of Washington.
• Natural choice because of his artistic merit, whig sensibilities, and service to the nation.
• Started a museum of Natural history which he moved to Independence Hall in 1802—the exhibits included bones of a Mastadon he recovered from NY in 1801
• Founder of the short lived Columbianum in 1794
• Founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1805.

Question 2

Answer 2

Charles Willson Peale, Worthy of Liberty, Mr. Pitt Scorns to Invade the Liberties of Other People, c. 1769

Question 3

Answer 3

Charles Willson Peale, Washington as a Colonel in the Virginia Regiment, 1772

Question 4

Answer 4

Charles Willson Peale, George Washington, 1776

Question 5

Answer 5

Charles Willson Peale, Washington at the battle of Princeton, 1784

Question 6

Answer 6

Charles Willson Peale, George Washington, 1787

Question 7

Answer 7

Charles Willson Peale, Washington after the Battle of Princeton, Jan. 3, 1777, 1789-92

Question 8

Answer 8

Jean Antoine Houdon, George Washington, 1788, Marble

Question 9

Answer 9

Charles Willson Peale, William Smith and His Grandson, 1788

Question 10

Answer 10

Charles Willson Peale, The Artist’s Mother, Mrs. Charles Peale and her Grandchildren, c. 1783

Question 11

Answer 11

Charles Wilson Peale

similar to the Bermuda Group

Question 12

Answer 12

Charles Willson Peale, The Staircase Group, 1795

Question 13

Answer 13

Charles Willson Peale, Exhumation of the Mastadon, 1805-1808

The supreme creator in his goodness has endowed man with a reflecting mind, he can compare the present with the past, he knows from the combination of certain things the results, he can calculate the revolution of the planets, he can produce by labour of the hands various and wonderful works of art, and with the knowledge of various powers, of the lever, the screws & the wedge, he can make machines to lessen labour, and multiply the conveniences and comforts of Life, he can analyze and know the componant parts of every kind of substance by actual experiments, so that nature are te subjects of his research to acquire knowledge.

Question 14

Answer 14

Charles Willson Peale, The Artist in his Museum, 1822

Question 15

Answer 15

John Trumbull, Self Portrait, 1777

Question 16

Answer 16

John Trumbull, George Washington, 1780

Question 17

Answer 17

John Trumbull, Death of Gen.Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17,1775, 1786

Question 18

Answer 18

John Trumbull, Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, 1786

Unlike the previous painting, Trumbull did not know the site and the principal figures were dead. As a result, Prown surmises that some of the strategies seen in this image reflect the necessity of invention.

Question 19

Answer 19

John Trumbull, The Declaration of Independence, 1786

For this image, Thomas Jefferson provided Trumbull a firsthand account of the event and a rough ground plan of the room in Independence Hall where the document was signed. Trumbull depicted not the signing, but the submission of a report by the committee that drafted the Declaration.

Question 20

Answer 20

John Trumbull, The Capture of the Hessiens at Trenton, Dec. 26, 1776, 1786

Question 21

Answer 21

John Trumbull, Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, 1781

Question 22

Answer 22

John Trumbull, Washington Before the Battle of Trenton, 1793