Mrs. John Nicholson (Hannah Duncan) and John Nicholson, Jr.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
91.5 × 69.3 cm (36 × 27 5/16 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
78507
Art Historical Context
Step into the refined world of early American portraiture with *Mrs. John Nicholson (Hannah) and John Nicholson,.*, painted by Charles Willson Pe in 1790. This oil-on-canvas work, measuring 91.5 × 69.3 cm, captures a tender mother-son duo from Philadelphia's elite circles. Peale, a Founding Fathers portraitist and polymath who founded the first U.S. art museum, masterfully rendered their poised likenesses, reflecting the optimism of the young republic under George Washington's presidency. Painted just a decade after independence, the portrait embodies neoclassical ideals of virtue, family, an...
About the Artist
Charles Willson Peale · 1741–1827
Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) was an American painter, museum founder, naturalist, and inventor who became the most important American portraitist of the Revolutionary era and a central figure in the cultural life of the young republic. Born in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, he initially trained as a saddler before turning to painting, studying briefly with John Singleton Copley in Boston and ...