1. The Glory of America
Early American Art

2. 4’11”x7’ National Gallery of Art, Ottawa
Death of General Wolf, 1770
Benjamin West
4’11”x7’ National Gallery of Art, Ottawa

3. 35 1/8 x 28 1/2 in, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Paul Revere,
John Singleton Copley
35 1/8 x 28 1/2 in, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Copley’s only finished portrait of an artisan shown at work.
An idealized image of the artisan at work – casual clothing but a pristine “work” area.
The reason for the commission of this portrait and the identification of the client who paid for it remain mysteries.
“Paul Revere” did not become a public image during the Revolution or in its aftermath. The Copley portrait remained in the Revere family after the sitter’s death in 1818, apparently relegated to an attic because it was “too informal”.

6. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 6′ 0″ x 7′ 6″
Watson and the Shark, 1778
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC 6′ 0″ x 7′ 6″
Patronage for portraits had slowed. Copley experimented with different kinds of paintings.
Watson asked Copley to paint an event from his early life. Took a real event and turned it into history painting.
Themes – horrible tragedy, salvation, triumph

7. Watson and the Shark – The Story
Watson was orphaned at the age of 6 and sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Boston, Massachusetts. Before the age of 14, Watson had expressed his interest in the sea, so his uncle signed him up as a crew member on one of his merchant ships.
While swimming alone in Havana harbor in 1749, the 14-year-old Watson was attacked by a shark. The shark attacked twice before Watson was rescued. The first time, the shark removed flesh from below the calf of Watson’s right leg; the second time, it bit off his right foot at the ankle. Watson was rescued by his shipmates, but his leg had to be amputated below the knee. Watson recuperated in a Cuban hospital and recovered within three months.
As an adult he became a successful merchant and politician.

9. The Declaration of Independence John Trumbull
’x18’ United States Capitol Bldg
The painting features the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence— John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson (presenting the document), and Benjamin Franklin — standing before John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress.

10. Charles Willson Peale Born – April 15, 1741 in Chester, MD
Died - February 22, 1827
Was an apprentice to a saddle maker when he was thirteen. Upon reaching maturity, he opened his own saddle shop; however, when his Loyalist creditors discovered he had joined the Sons of Liberty, they conspired to bankrupt his business.
Finding that he had a talent for painting, especially portraiture, Peale studied for a time under John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West.
He raised troops for the War and eventually gained the rank of captain in the Pennsylvania militia by 1776.
He did portraits of many historic figures (Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton) but is he is probably best known for his portraits of Washington. Peale produced close to 60 portraits of Washington. In January 2005, a full-length portrait of Washington at Princeton, from 1779, sold for $21.3 million, setting a record for the highest price paid for an American portrait.
Peale had a great interest in natural history and founded what became the Philadelphia Museum, later known as Peale's American Museum, the first museum of the United States.
It housed a diverse collection of botanical, biological, and archaeological specimens. Most notably, the museum contained a large variety of birds which Peale himself acquired, and in many instances mounted, having taught himself taxidermy.
Peale had 3 wives total – he had 16 children between his 1st two wives!

11. Staircase Group, 1795 Charles Willson Peale Philadelphia Museum of Art
Example of “trompe l'oeil” painting

12. Charles Willson Peale 1806 49 x 61½”
Exhuming The Mastodon,
Charles Willson Peale x 61½”

13. Exhuming the Mastodon
Peale invented the device that removed the water from the pit.
Clear social hierarchies.
Genre painting, history painting, self and group portraiture.

14. George Washington, 1796 Gilbert Stuart
National Portrait Gallery and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
His best known work, the unfinished portrait of George Washington, sometimes referred to as The Athenaeum, was begun in 1796 and never finished.
Stuart kept the portrait and used it to paint 130 copies which he sold for $100 each.
The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for over a century, and on various U.S. Postage stamps of the 19th century and early 20th century.

15. 1819 25 1/8 x 35 3/4 in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Moonlit Landscape
Washington Allston
/8 x 35 3/4 in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston