Rembrandt Peale (artist)

Rembrandt Peale’s father, Charles Willson Peale, was a well-known artist who painted George Washington, and Rembrandt Peale had the opportunity to do 2 portraits of Washington during the president’s lifetime. In the 1820’s, Peale set out to create an ideal representation of Washington and gathered examples from many different artists including his father and himself. The resulting portrait was called the Patriae Pater, or “Father of Our Country” in Latin. The 1824 portrait hangs in the Old Senate Chamber of the US Capitol. Peale completed over 70 versions of this painting during his lifetime. The NCMA version is from the 1850s.