Lot 5: RAPHAELLE PEALE (1774-1825)

Portrait of Artemas Ward signed Raphaelle Peale, dated 1795 and inscribed pinxt, c.l. - - oil on canvas 25 3/4 x 22 in. (65.5 x 56 cm.) In late 1794 or early 1795 Charles Willson Peale was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Revolutionary war hero General Artemas Ward. This portrait highlighted Ward's remarkable participation in the militia and government during the formation of the States. Although his accomplishments were many and varied, Ward is particularly well remembered for his participation in the battles at Fort Ticonderoga and Bunker Hill as well as his election to the first two terms of Congress in Philadelphia. Charles Willson Peale's portrait of Ward now hangs in the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The present example, painted by Raphaelle Peale in 1795, was finished at a time when both he and his brother Rembrandt were executing life portraits at the side of their father. It seems likely, however, that this work was a replica of his father's well-known portrait made by Raphaelle to give to the family of General Ward. Indeed, Raphaelle executed another version of this portrait to take with him for exhibition in Charleston, Savannah, Baltimore and New York later that year. The exhibition version is now in the collection of the Artemas Ward House in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts that is maintained by Harvard University. The lot is accompanied by a letter dated Feb. 11, 1992 from Lillian Miller of the Peale Family Papers at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington.