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Peale took charge of the setting of some of these miniatures in the winter of 1780-1781, as the following correspondence reveals:

Sir

"New Windsor, Dec. 26, 1780.

I send my miniature pictures to you and request the favor of you to get them set for me. I would have them as bracelets to wear round the wrists. The pictures already set I beg you to have cut the same size as the two, and set alike, as I may make a pair of either of the three pictures. The diamonds may be set in a pin for the hair. I would have the three pictures set exactly alike, and all the same size. If you have no crystals yourself, if they can be had in the city, I beg you to get them for me. I would like to have them set neat and plain, and will be much obliged to you to hurry the person that undertakes the doing of them, as I am very anxious to get them soon.

I am, sir, your ob' h" sv',

MARTHA WASHINGTON.

In the box three miniatures, 2 half joes and small pieces of gold."

Dr Madam

"Philad", January 16, 1881.

The jeweller promises me to have the bracelets done in a few days. I have begged him to take the utmost pains to set them neatly. As no foreign glasses were to be had, I have moulded some of the best glass I could find, and got a Lapidary to polish them: which I hope will not be inferior to those made abroad. I have cut the pictures to one size, and mean to go a little further than you are pleased to direct—that is, to have square loopholes for occasional use as a locket, and the additional expense is inconsiderable.

Mrs. Martha Washington."

Respectfully yours,

C. W. PEALE.

The eminent scholar, General G. P. Thruston of Nashville, Tennessee, is the possessor of the original bust-portrait of Washington-here for the first time engraved-the coloring of which is superb. In the "Original Portraits of Washington" by Miss Johnston, a work issued in 1882, appears the following paragraph:

"The only bust-portrait of Washington of cabinet size, from the hand of Charles Wilson Peale, once belonged to Captain Williams of the Topographical Bureau, who married Miss Peter, a great grand-daughter of Mrs.

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FROM THE BUST PORTRAIT BY CHARLES WILSON PEALE, NEVER BEFORE ENGRAVED.

[The painting is in possession of General G. P. Thruston, Nashville, Tennessee.]

Washington. This portrait, in 1832, became the property of Judge Thruston of Kentucky, and descended to his daughter, the late Mrs. Jeanette Thruston Powell. It is very brilliant in tone and readily identified as a work of Peale, though there was a tradition attributing it to Gilbert Stuart. It is now in the possession of Admiral L. M. Powell, Washington." Admiral Powell left the picture by will to his nephew, General Thruston, who prizes it as it deserves.

The versatility of talent which characterized Charles Wilson Peale, uniquely illustrates the times in which he lived. He made up in unceasing energy what he lacked in opportunity; he began life in 1741, and was twenty-six before he studied painting, although it appears to have been his natural bent from childhood. He was at one time and another a saddler, harness-maker, silversmith, watchmaker, carver in ivory, moulder of glass, schoolmaster, janitor, painter, engraver, soldier, inventor, lecturer, author, sportsman, naturalist, scientist, legislator, and the first dentist in the country who manufactured sets of enamel teeth. And he made a very respectable figure in each calling. There was very little to encourage his seeking art as a profession, no standard, no school, no support. "You have come a great way to starve," said Benjamin West, when told that his subsequently distinguished countryman had visited London to study at the Royal Academy. Dr. Franklin wrote to Peale in 1771, "there is no doubt of the Arts flourishing hereafter on our side of the Atlantic, as the number of wealthy inhabitants shall increase, who may be able and willing suitably to reward them; since, from several instances, it appears that our people are not deficient in genius." But even the great philosopher recognized the precarious nature of the vocation if depended upon for a subsistence, and advised Peale "to claim large prices before he should be compelled to wear spectacles." Peale, like many another of the early artists, found painting as capriciously remunerative as his early education for it was limited and accidental. He had to look to individuals for employment and support. Some twenty years later and long before commercial success had become honorably identified with tasteful liberality, Trumbull said to a young student of art, "You had better learn to make shoes or dig potatoes than become a painter in this country." The industry and genius of Peale triumphed, however, over all the depressing conditions of the period, and for what he achieved with his own brush and has handed along through the century, and because of his conscientious and intelligent labors in the cause of art, he is entitled to our everlasting gratitude. He painted the portraits of his family upon a large canvas in 1773-completed in 1809-known as the "Family Group," which hangs in the gallery of the

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New York Historical Society. It embraces his own portrait and those of his wife and children, David Ramsay the historian, and his favorite dog, "Argus." All the portraits of Washington by Peale, independent of the professional skill which they represent in the infancy of native art, are essential to our gallery of Washingtonia. He also transferred to canvas the features of most of the celebrities, native and foreign, associated with American history and society in the beginning of our career as a nation, among whom were John Hancock, Robert Morris, Dr. Franklin, Lord Stirling, General Greene, Baron Steuben, General Gates, Dr. Witherspoon, Peyton Randolph, Rochambeau, De Kalb, Laurens, Chastellux, Albert Gallatin, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Dickinson, Lincoln, Volney, Pickering, George Clymer, Governor McKean, and Bishop White. His last work was

a full length portrait of himself, painted at the age of eighty-three. He died in 1826.

When Washington died, Malbone was but twenty-two years of age, and although he had been established for three years as a miniature painter in Boston, there is no record that he ever sought to distinguish himself by painting our first President. He was a native of Rhode Island, and his artistic gifts and social graces seem to have been inherited from his ancesHe found in scene painting his first tangible hint of a possible future career. He became the intimate friend of Washington Allston, of South Carolina, who was two years his junior. In 1800 Malbone accompanied Allston to Charleston, and in that cultured Southern city he found immediate appreciation and sympathy. In all the principal cities of America Malbone's exquisite miniatures were scattered from time to time during his brief life which was terminated by death at the age of thirty. They are to be found in many of the families of Charleston; of Brigham and Peters, of Philadelphia; of the Derbys, of Salem, Massachusetts; of Erving, Amory, Dana, and others, of Boston-precious links of connection with the romantic past. It is the peculiar charm of miniatures that they are usually sacred to affection, are treasured in the casket or safe deposit vault, not exposed on the wall, and consequently regarded with a tenderness that language fails to express. What a perfect lyric is in poetry, the miniature is in painting. Malbone's drawing was absolutely correct, and he had a quick insight into character. Some remarkable examples of his work exist in the miniatures of Mr. and Mrs. William Dana, of Boston, made about the year 1799, which we have the pleasure of engraving for the first time, and presenting to our readers. Mr. Dana was the son of Benjamin Dana, of Cambridge; Mrs. Dana was Eliza Davis, daughter of Major Robert Davis who figured at the Boston Tea Party, and siege of Boston in the Revolution-a brother of General Amasa Davis, and Hon. Caleb Davis speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Mrs. William Dana's sister married William Ely of Hartford. These pictures were described, on one occasion, by the Newport art correspondent of the New York Evening Post as follows: "In the interest of art it may be well to mention that there are in existence two admirable miniatures on ivory by Malbone, of Mr. and Mrs. William Dana of Boston, painted from life, and they are remarkable for their beauty and finish and are considered among the finest efforts of that distinguished artist. They are in possession of Mrs. Charles Chauncey Darling, of New York."*

* Mrs. Charles Chauncey Darling, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Dana, having since died, these miniatures are now in possession of her son, General Charles W. Darling of Utica.

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