Description
signed Raphaelle Peale and dated December 24, 1821, l.r. oil on panel Born in Philadelphia in 1774, Raphaelle Peale was the eldest surviving son of Charles Willson Peale, the patriarch of the great Pennsylvania family that included some of the most celebrated American artists of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With his interests in art, science and philosophy, Charles Willson Peale embodied the ideals of the Enlightenment, and raised his children in a house overflowing with his collection of "Natural Curiousities." In 1786, he opened part of the house to the public and it became know as "Peale's Museum" (later "The Philadelphia Museum"). According to Linda Bantel, "A predilection for art and nature was imbued in all of Charles Willson Peale's progeny. The children were taught the rudiments of painting and were inculcated with their father's scientific and philosophic enthusiasms as well. ". . . The influence of the museum and Charles Willson Peale on Raphaelle was considerable. In his youth Raphaelle traveled with his father on painting trips and assisted him in the museum by gathering and preserving specimens and arranging habitats. He painted background scenes for the habitats with leaves, foliage, or insects, reproducing the typical environment in which the animals dwelled" (Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. et al., Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes, Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 1988, p. 16). By the time he reached his early twenties, Raphaelle's early interest in portraying the minute details of the museum's flora and fauna had become a fascination with still life painting. His predilection for still life was remarkable at the time, given that the traditional European hierarchy of subjects--which the new world had inherited from the old-- ranked still life last in artistic significance behind mythology, religion, history, portraiture and landscape painting. In defiance of his father's wishes and despite the generally accepted public view, Raphaelle Peale became America's first professional still life painter, and the present painting is an exquisite, newly-discovered example of his work. Had he been born in Europe, Raphaelle Peale's still lifes would probably have been rarely exhibited and soon forgotten. In America, however, as early as 1795 Raphaelle Peale exhibited five portraits and seven still lifes at the Columbianum exhibition in Philadelphia, and he continued to exhibit still lifes regularly at the annual exhibitions held by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts beginning in 1811. These yearly exhibitions provided a venue for artists to display their work and an arena from which a new artistic hierarchy--reflecting the tastes, interests and values of the new American nation---could emerge. A contemporary reviewer of the 1813 Pennsylvania Academy exhibition commented on Raphaelle Peale's submissions: "Before our annual exhibition this artist was but little known. The last year he exhibited two pictures of still life, that deservedly drew the public attention, and were highly appreciated by the best judges. We are extremely grateful to find that he has directed his talents to a branch of the arts in which he appears to be so well fitted to excel. . . . Raphael [sic] Peale has demonstrated talents so transcendent in subjects of still life, that with proper attention and encouragement, he will, in our opinion, rival the first artists, ancient or modern, in that department of painting. . . " (George Murray, "Review of the Third Annual Exhibition of the Columbian Society of Artists and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts," The Port Folio, 2, August 1813). Raphaelle Peale's devotion to still life caused his father much consternation, and Charles Willson Peale exhorted his son to pursue the more highly regarded category of portraiture with the same dedication. Writing to Raphaelle from his country home outside of Philadelphia on November 15, 1817, Charles Willson Peale urged, "I well know your talents, and am fully confident that if you applied [yourself] as you ought to do, you would be the first painter in America. . . .Your pictures of still life are acknowledged to be, even by the Painters here, far exceeding all other works of that kind--and you have often heard me say that I thought with such talents of exact imitation your portraits ought to be more excellent-- My dear Raph. then why will you neglect yourself--?" (American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). This rift between the artist and his father was compounded by Raphaelle's unhappy marriage to Patty McGlatherly, which had been carried out in spite of the Peale family's disapproval, and by his debilitating alcoholism. He also suffered from gout which prevented him from undertaking the travel necessary to fulfill portrait commissions. Charles Willson Peale did not abandon his son, however, and when Raphaelle found himself unable to support his wife and six children, his father tried to help him by purchasing his paintings and sending him money outright. Despite his frustration with Raphaelle, Charles Willson Peale tacitly acknowledged his son's preference in his 1817 Portrait of Raphaelle Peale (Private Collection), which depicts his eldest son seated at his easel with a palette and brushes in his hand and a still life hanging in the background. Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. writes, "Raphaelle was professionally and personally a disappointment to his father. Yet of all the Peales, he was the truest and greatest artist. He had the finest artistic sensibility and intelligence, and despite his lack of self-confidence and ambition, he was artistically the most daring. In the end his art had the most lasting influence as well" (p. 33). Indeed, Raphaelle Peale's willfull adherence to still life painting helped pave the way for an American still life tradition. His breathtaking powers of illusionistic representation and the critical acclaim his works received encouraged a new generation of American artists to pursue still life subjects and trompe l'oeil effects. It has been estimated that Raphaelle Peale completed approximately 150 still lifes, of which about 50 have survived. Among the precious few examples that remain are master works of American still life painting and historical documents which explicitly record the culinary and horticultural accomplishments of early nineteenth century Philadelphia, while implying, through their depiction of expensive delicacies, fine china, glassware and other refined luxuries, the economic and cultural achievements of that city and the American nation in general. The elements in the present painting--identified by Dr. Phoebe Lloyd as a Washington's Favorite apple, hazelnuts, currants, Twelfth Night Cakes and cinnamon bay leaves--are rendered with the precision of a scientist, attesting to Raphaelle's extraordinary talent for "exact imitation," which even Charles Willson Peale acknowledged in his son.
