Philadelphia Antiques Show 2018

1 Paul Schweizer, “Fruits of Perseverance: The Art of Rubens Peale, 1855–1865,” in The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870 , ed. Lillian B. Miller (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), 181. 2 Carol Eaton Soltis, The Art of the Peales: Adaptations and Innovations (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2017), 245; Alexandra Kirtley, “The Compendium,” in Leslie Anne Miller, Start with a House, Finish with a Collection (New York: Scala Arts Publishers, 2014), 244. 3 Soltis, 245. 4 Soltis, 247. 5 Soltis, 5–6. Rubens Peale, American, 1784 - 1865 From Nature in the Garden 1856 Oil on canvas, mounted on panel 18 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches (47.6 x 62.9 cm) Framed: 24 × 29 7/8 inches (61 × 75.9 cm) Gift of the McNeil Americana Collection, 2010 2010-70-3 F rom Nature in the Garden by Rubens Peale (1784–1865) represents the enduring legacy of the Peale family, whose impact offers a natural starting point for any discussion of art, museums, and collecting in Philadelphia. As the founder of the first successful public museum in the United States, patriarch Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) set a precedent for the family’s shared interest in collecting works of artistic, natural, and historical significance. His brother, sons, daughters, and extended family members contributed to these efforts both professionally and personally. Despite the interconnected lineages of instruction in the Peale family, each artist developed their own style and voice. From Nature in the Garden clearly demonstrates the distinct style of Rubens Peale: a carefully arranged composition with a profusion of shapes and col- ors expressed in a dimensional yet flat and naïve manner. This work shows the influence not only of the artists in his immediate family, but also of popular mid-nineteenth-century still life artists such as George Harvey (c. 1800–1878) and Severin Roesen (1816–c. 1872). 1 Rubens Peale spent most of his professional life managing his father’s museums. A lifetime of poor eyesight made him the only son of Charles Willson who did not produce art for a living. Instructed by his daughter, Mary Jane Peale (1827–1902), who in turn had been taught by her uncle Rembrandt (1778–1860), he began painting recreationally in 1855 at age seventy-one and continued to do so for the last decade of his life. 2 Rubens recorded in his journal that he began this work in January of 1856 and completed it in December of the same year. 3 Known to friends and family for the remarkable garden he cultivated in his retirement, Rubens likely added flowers to the work as they came into bloom in his garden throughout the year in which he painted From Nature in the Garden . The painted crest on the pierced porcelain basket holding the flowers is inscribed “RP to CWP 1856,” commemorating the fact that this work was a gift Rubens painted for the son he named after his father, Charles Willson Peale (1821–1871). The basket became a prop, appearing in still life paintings made by other family members and linking the artistic production of the Peales. 4 The Museum’s continued interest in representing the arts of the colonies and early United States, especially those of Philadelphia, led to several important acquisitions of Peale works, including the Staircase Group in 1940, the Cadwalader portraits in 1980 and 1983, and the Portrait of Yarrow Mamout in 2011. The gift of Peale works collected by Robert L. McNeil, Jr., including From Nature in the Garden , has proven transformative for the Museum, greatly expanding the breadth and depth of work represented to include over 150 works by fifteen members of the Peale family in media including oil paintings, miniatures, pastels, drawings, prints, and silhouettes. 5 Project Associate Curator Carol Soltis recently published The Art of the Peales: Adaptations and Innovations , which tells the story of the art of the Peale family, including Rubens, through the Museum’s collection. Rubens Peale, From Nature in the Garden W 120 W