Transcripts For CSPAN3 Second Bank Portrait Gallery 20170422

Im kariehorn diethorn. I am the chief curator at the Independence National park, the National Park service in philadelphia. I oversee a large collection of Museum Artifacts here, almost 4 million of them. We are here at the second bank of the United States, a Historic Building that is part of the Independence National historical park. The second bank of the United States, which was finished in 1824, was literally the fort knox of its day. The building has been restored on the exterior, so when you come to see us you will see how , it looked brandnew. Exhibits the fine arts from the early 19th century to tell the story of what it was like to live in 18th century america, the world that those people knew and the worldly world that the revolution built. The portrait collection at Independence National historical park is a very, very old one. The bulk of our collection, 94 pictures, was painted by Charles Wilson peel, a Philadelphia Artist who had a museum here in the city. The museum was so popular in the middle of the 19th century many , of the pictures were purchased by the city of philadelphia to hang them in Independence Hall, the subject the city chose were signers of the declaration, because the declaration and presentation had been written in Independence Hall. Throughout the 19th century, the pictures hung there, and in the middle of the 20th century, the National Park Service Restored Independence Hall to how it looked at the time of the revolution when the paintings were not there. So the National Park service decided to move the paintings to the second bank of the United States and create a modern exhibit. In a way, you can say the paintings would have never been part. They were created by Charles Wilson peel for the museum, they were purchased by philadelphia for their museum and Independence Hall, and then they became responsibility of the National Park service here at the second bank of the United States. Individually, they are wonderful, but collectively, they are so aweinspiring. Here at the second bank of the United States, we have so many paintings by the artist Charles Willson peale, that we wanted to recreate for our visitors a standing room sense of what he painted these portraits for. That is the museum here in philadelphia. Here we have a graphic depiction of the museum. This is actually from a painting of Charles Wilson peel that he did himself in another museums collection, but the background is so interesting, because here is Charles Willson Peales Museum when it was on the second floor of the Independence Hall. You can see the exhibit cases with all of the taxidermy prepared animals and birds, and above, you can see the portraits. Because Charles Willson peale could put in stuffed birds and animals, but he couldnt put in stuffed people. Although he did think about it. Instead he had portraits for standins. And the best part of the depictions are they visitors of Charles Willson Peales Museum. Heres a man talking to avoid to a boy. A boy is reading a book. I especially love this woman whose hands are raised in amazement at what she is saying. And actually what she is seeing is behind Charles Wilson peel, it is a fully preserved skeleton of a mammoth. That is what she saw. A stuffed mammoth. And Charles Willson Peales Museum, it was like museums today, instantly trying to bring in visitors with something new. Here you see gas fixtures powered by gas or they were the gas fixtures at philadelphia at a public building in philadelphia. Here is Charles Willson peale himself. The best part of Charles Willson Peales Museum and the portraits and it is Charles Willson peale wanted to preserve the portraits in the museum as those people really looked. It is kind of all of approach. The greatest example is this portrait over here, which is not by Charles Willson peale, but by rembrandt. The person for whom fort sumter in south carolina, the place where the civil war started is , named. And when Charles Willson peale taught his son rembrandt to paint, he wanted to make the portrait as precise as possible to include all the details of a persons face. Because at the time they believe the persons character was reflected on the base. Face it we dont believe that now. In the 18th century, it had to do with the features. That meant all of the features, there was not picking and choosing. In the case of Charles Sumter, when we look at the painting and we say, what is wrong with his eyes . They look a little odd. The answer is Charles Sumter really did have a lazy eye. And Charles Willson peales son rembrandt included that in the portrait, not to make fun of Charles Sumter, but to be as accurate as possible about how Charles Sumter really looked so that when visitors to peel museum saw the painting they , would know that was Charles Sumter. I think that really says something about Charles Wilson peel, his son rembrandt peel, and their commitment to the style of painting as the day, which is all about detail. Our exhibit in the second bank is a specific gallery representative of the peel museum doesnt have the character. We have arranged those portraits like Charles Willson peale did. They are double and triple stacked in order to accommodate them. At the end of peales life, there were all most of 300 portraits in his museum. We only have about a third of them here today at independence park, but we wanted people to get the kind of wow factor that the visitors to the original museum got when they sell all of they saw all of these paintings of all of these familiar people. When you look at these portraits, you notice they really all start to look similar until you start to study them one by one, but that similarity isnt necessarily a bad thing. What is is is reflective of what Charles Willson peale was trying to do with his portraits. He wanted the people to appear as much like their real selves as possible, but he also wanted the portraits to be emblematic of something that was very important to the 18th century, and that was history. In the case of Charles Willson peale, he painted his museum portraits head and shoulders only, nothing in the background, and oftentimes framed them in an oval, because he wanted his portraits in the museum to look like the coins of ancient roman emperors with the busts of the emperors on them. He wanted to reflect the idea that these were powerful people, and yet they are still of the people. They are not emperors, but they have that kind of elegance, that kind of power, that kind of real commitment to ruling the nation. And so the museum portraits that Charles Willson peale have a very distinctive format because he wanted us to look at them like the heroes of the ancient world. There is also a practical reason. It is very quick easy and quick , to paint head and shoulders only. You dont have all the details. Charles wilson peel in his autobiography claimed he could paint one of the museum portraits in three hours. We have to take that with a boulder of salt, but he was very productive. And because he hung his brother and his son working with him, they all had like an Assembly Line of production. Thats how they ended up with almost 300 paintings in the museum by itself. Today all of the paintings have been preserved and protected. Most of them do not have their original frames. We have replicas. The frames were delicate and they were kind of the first thing to go. These paintings have been through a lot since the 19th century before they came into the modern museum. We wanted to present them as accurately as possible, and even though we dont have the historical frames, we have gotten close with our replicas. This is the first. This is baron von triton, who was a prussian military advisor to George Washington during the American Revolution, and is launched live in von steuben who taught the American Army at valley forge how to conduct their military maneuvers and how to be a real army as opposed to a bunch of farmers and merchants who have guns. It is a great painting, because von steuben is wearing all of his medals, and he really looks like somebody that was going to boss you around. Von steuben didnt speak english, so when he was drilling the troops at valley forge he said it in his native tongue, and then waited for someone to translate. I cant imagine how frustrating that must have been for von ste Charles Wilson peel did the painting because he was so famous. This was one of the draws that first Charles Willson peale had at his first museum, to see the first prussian general who made an army out of farmers. And behind me, you might talk about this painting. It was Timothy Matlack. Timothy matlack is the person who wrote out the declaration of independence during the month of july 1776 so that everybody else could sign it on august 2, 1776. And Timothy Matlack in the painting is in his late 80s. And Charles Willson peale is not much younger, and the two have been friends for more than 60 years. When you are looking at this painting, you are really looking at this wonderful old man with a beautiful white beard, and it is a real character study. It is the last painting Charles Wilson peel did for his museum before Charles Wilson peel died two years later. Peale was born in maryland, but he moved to philadelphia on the eve of the revolution in because 1775 he wanted to find clientele for his painterly services. In other words he was a , businessmen, and he was looking for customers. He moved to philadelphia, immediately started painting portraits. He was very active during the American Revolution painting portraits of soldiers going off to war. But right now i would like to talk a little bit about this painting peel did of himself in the middle of the 1790s. Peel was incredibly productive as an artist. It has been estimated that he painted more than 600 pictures in his lifetime. He actually did seven selfportraits. This is one of them. And what is really amazing to me about this painting is how peel portrays himself. In other words, hes not trying. O pretty himself up his hair is messy, his close a rumpled. Clothes are rumpled. What he wants to show is not an elegant person, but a craftsman, an artisan, someone who takes their work seriously. That is why in the portrait, the subjects eyes are really the most prominent aspect of the painting. And peale really looks right out at you, the audience. Hypnotize sort of him, hypnotizing, i think, his gaze is so intense. The other purpose of doing a self portrait, you cant blame it on the client who is moving around too much or talking, because you yourself the artist are the subject. Peel used the opportunity for this selfportrait to kind of stretch himself technically as an artist. You might notice the rather unusual angle of his torso, and one can attribute that to his turning back and forth to the painting, to a mirror, to the painting. And he captures that motion in the picture. He is also experimenting with light. Youll notice how one half of his face is in shadow, and the other is brightly lit. That is hard to do, technically. The light source for this painting is even outside the picture frame. Peel is experimenting with this not because he is going to show this portrait to a lot of people, but because he himself is practicing his technique as an artist. And it makes a really wonderful character study. There is nothing in the background, we are just focusing on the subject, and what we are really focusing on the subject about is his eyes. We will see a lot of other pictures by Charles Willson peale painted of his contemporaries as we move along, and there is one of them right here. Now, this is a very different picture. This is Mary White Morris, who was a woman in philadelphia from the colonial period into the early 19th century. This was a private commission. In other words, Mary White Morris paid Charles Willson peale to paint this picture of her in the early 1780s. Mary white morris is shown in an incredibly extravagant costumes. Shes wearing a turban with feathers and jules jewels. She has a sash. She looks like someone who can buy the world. That was the whole point of this picture. Charles Willson Peale was hired by Mary White Morris and her husband to paint this painting and a companion portrait of her husband. Merit white morriss husband was Robert Morris, who is sometimes referred to as the financier of the American Revolution. He was so wealthy, Robert Morris during the colonial period in , the 1780s, that he could finance of the American Revolution with his own private money. And if he hadnt done that, it is highly unlikely that the American Revolution could have gotten off on a good start. And Mary White Morris is ostensibly in this portrait, is portrayed in way that is meant to impress you, that is meant to make you see how wealthy she is, how important her standing is. You might think that that is all that is important about Mary White Morris, that she had a lot of money and could dress fancy, but in fact what Charles Wilson peel has done with this portrait is he has included much more information about her than you might think. That information also is no more about her as a real person. I will point out a few of those aspects. These are called attributes in a painting. You will see in the upper left corner just a very is vaguely the ghost of an outline. The sculpture. It is of the muse of music. You can see he is holding a trumpet. The reason this is in mary white painting morriss is because Charles Willson peale once to inform us that shes not only pretty to look at, she is talented. She appreciates music. He also wants us to know she is not dumb. If you look on this side of the painting, you will see what looks like a landscape behind her with these portrait busts on pedestals. This was not a real place. This was not where Mary White Morris or Robert Morris lived or any place in philadelphia. It is imaginary, but it is symbolic. It is what Charles Willson peale wants you to think about Mary White Morris. The reason why these are these busts, they are recognizable here is George Washington, and these other figures are the busts of other political writers from england and america. What is that kind of thing doing in an 18thcentury womans portrait . What it is doing there is telling us that Mary White Morris has read all of these authors, understands the political theory of her era, and espouses it. Weve got music and weve got intellect. And that is really what he is trying to say, behind this beautiful facade, there is a woman of substance. What we know about Mary White Morriss biography, she is a credible incredible what she achieved. She is a woman an aristocratic one, but a woman nonetheless, living in an area controlled by men. And yet, Mary White Morris becomes her husbands inherited Business Partner after her husband winds up in prison because he cant pay his debts. In the 18th century you cant just declare bankruptcy. You had to pay up or go to jail. Robert morris couldnt