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Timothy Matlack
Rembrandt·1802
Historical Context
Rembrandt Peale's portrait of Timothy Matlack, painted in 1802, represents the mature phase of an American artist who had grown up surrounded by the luminaries of the founding generation. Matlack was a Revolutionary War figure, secretary of the Continental Congress, and the penman who copied the Declaration of Independence in the hand familiar from reproductions—making him a figure of considerable historical resonance even by 1802. Peale brought to this commission the refined neoclassical portrait style he had developed after training with his father Charles Willson Peale and study in London, combining European academic finish with the directness appropriate to republican virtue. The portrait belongs to a moment when American painters were actively constructing a visual record of the founding generation before they passed from the scene.
Technical Analysis
The oil on canvas shows the solid, carefully modeled portrait technique that Rembrandt Peale developed from his father's example. The dark background and focused lighting on the sitter's face demonstrate the American adaptation of European portrait conventions.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the sober republican bearing — Matlack presented without aristocratic accessories, the portrait reflecting the American ideal of civic virtue.
- ◆Look at the neoclassical portrait style Rembrandt Peale developed from his father's example, combining European academic finish with American directness.
- ◆Observe the focused lighting on the face against the dark background, the standard formula for conveying individual character in this tradition.
- ◆Find the historical resonance in the sitter's face: this is the man who copied out the Declaration of Independence in the handwriting the world knows.
Provenance
Martha Bryan Schott Whitney [Mrs. Elisha D. Whitney, d. 1889], great-granddaughter of the sitter.[1] James S. Whitney.[2] (C. K. Johnson, Greenwich, Connecticut); sold 1 February 1923 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[3] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA. [1] _Catalogue of the Paintings and Other Objects of Interest Belonging to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania_, Philadelhia, 1872: 8, no. 9. Mrs. Whitney deposited the portrait at the society on November 11, 1872. She was Matlack's great-granddaughter; her mother Rebecca Bryan Schott (Mrs. James Schott, 1787-1871), was the daughter of Matlack's daughter Martha Matlack Bryan (Mrs. Guy Bryan, 1770-1814). (Information in NGA curatorial files). [2] The evidence of James S. Whitney's ownership of the portrait is an undated handwritten label on the back of the frame, which reads: "Timothy Matlack/ Born Haddonfield NJ/ in the year 1730, and Died near/ Homesburg, Pa. April 15th 1829/ Deposited by James S. Whitney, and subject to his order." His relationship to Mrs. Whitney, the previous owner, is unknown. Her will (Philadelphia Register of Wills, W-1225-1889, and that of her husband (Philadelphia Register of Wills, W-64-1888) do not mention a James S. Whitney. Anna Wells Rutledge and James W. Lane, "110 Paintings in the Clarke Collection", unpublished typescript, NGA Department of Curatorial Records, 1952: 144, suggested that James S. Whitney was her brother (probably an error for "brother-in-law"). They note that he withdrew the portrait from the Historical Society sometime after 1907. The will of a James S. Whitney (died 1921; Philadelphia Register of Wills W-1045-1921) lists his address as 1627 Sumner Street, and indicates four children: Asa W., Thomas B., Anne Wakefield and Emma S. Whitney. Thomas was given all the "books, pictures, furniture and other articles" not specifically given to other children; however, the inventory lists only "5 oil paintings," and these are probably the "five marine paintings by James Hamilton" specifically given to his daughters. [3] C. K. Johnson offered the portrait to Clarke in his letter of 27 January 1923 (NGA Clarke files). The date of purchase and name of the seller are recorded in an annotated copy of _Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke_, Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928 (NGA Library).
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