The following description for has been prepared entirely by the current owner, Roberts S. Fastov, Esq., and, at the collector’s request, has not been edited by Sloans & Kenyon

Charles Willson Peale (Maryland/Pennsylvania 1741-1827) Portrait of a handsome Pennsylvania Quaker woman, c. 1810, at age c. 35 to 40 years old. Oil on canvas. 24 in. x 20 in. Estimate: $30,000-$50,000. Provenance: Daniel Hersh, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area

Note 1) That this woman was a Quaker is made manifest by her simple Quaker attire, which distinguishes this portrait from the more fashionable women that Peale painted. This was confirmed when Mr. Fastov showed this painting to Lillian B. Miller, Editor of The Selected Papers Of Charles Willson Peale And His Family and Historian of American Culture, National Portrait Gallery, several years ago, she suggested that this portrait was painted when Peale visited some of his wife's Quaker female friends, c. 1812. In a letter dated February 9, 1987, she stated the portrait “may be of a Quaker friend of his third wife Hannah Moore Peale in Germantown, whom he notes in his farm book around 1812 that he was setting out to paint.” She also noted that Peale never disclosed “the name of the sitter,” but she was relatively young and attractive. Peale married his 3^rd wife, Hannah Moore, a Quaker, in 1805.

Charles Willson Peale’s likeness of his third wife, Hannah Moore (1755-1821), whom he married in 1805, depicts his respect for and admiration for his then 61 year old wife, who was clearly a very handsome woman, when she was younger. Among other reasons for Peale so respecting and admiring Hannah is because Hannah helped raise Peale's children from his previous two marriages and did so in a very effective manner, judging by the incredible success of Peale's artist children. The key consideration, however, is that if one compares the portrait of the Quaker woman that is up for auction with that of Hannah Peale, one cannot doubt that the same hand, the hand of Charles Willson Peale, executed the portrait of the Quaker woman, even though she is more youthful and attractive than the 61 year old Hannah Peale. Without doubt, there is no other early 19^th century American portrait painter whose style and technique would have permitted him to execute this portrait of a Quaker woman, including artists such leading portrait artists such as Gilbert Stuart and John Wesley Jarvis, or any of the other lesser American portraitists. The Peale style and technique manifested in the portrait of the Quaker woman is foreshadowed in the following Peale portrait of his mother, painted earlier in 1770.

Margaret Triggs Matthews (1709-1791) (Mrs. Charles Willson Peale, the artist's mother).

Peale painted a significant number of Quakers during his lifetime, as he was very close to the Quaker community before he married Hannah Moore. The Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums lists a portrait of a Quaker woman, 1772, which is "unlocated." See Peale's portrait of the Quaker Mrs. John Dickinson and daughter, Sally, dated 1773, but probably executed in 1772, and the Quaker John Cadwalader family, 1772 in which Mr. Cadwalader, his wife and child are depicted. See discussion in Quaker Esthetics, edited by Emma Jones Lapsansky and Anne A. Verplanck, p. 139, in a topic entitled "Quakerism And Colonial Portraiture"

Mrs. John Dickinson and daughter, Sally,

The Cadwalader Family

Peale painted other portraits of prominent Quaker friends. See, e.g.:

Portrait of William Bartram (1739-1823) by Charles Willson Peale, 1808, who was a Quaker friend of Peale's

Timothy Matlack

Peale even included a Quaker woman in one of his largest and most famous paintings, "The Artist in His Museum, 1822," in which: "One can also see a few visitors. A father instructs his young son who is holding an open book in his hands (the museum guidebook?). A Quaker woman stands startled and fearful in front of a huge mastodon skeleton, the museum’s half-covered showpiece; and in the far back is a man with his arms crossed (Emphasis added)." The Impossible Museum by Peter Friedl.

Note 2) Of the 4 great American portrait painters of the 18th century, who were born in this country, Peale, Gilbert Stuart, Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, Stuart came to England in 1775 and remained in England as a successful portrait painter, competing with artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney, until he returned to America in 1792, and engaging in his very successful practice of portraiture in America, based significantly on his numerous portraits of George Washington, West and Copley remained in England for the rest of their lives and were successful portraitists and history painters. In contrast, Peale returned to America and settled in Annapolis, Maryland in 1770, after a trip to England for the sole purpose of studying with West, beginning in 1767. Peale was a patriotic soldier in the American Revolution and engaged in a very active portrait practice, painting portraits of Revolutionary War leaders, such as Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hancock and Hamilton, and other participants in the American Revolution, such as Thomas Fitzgerald (See next Peale portrait lot) and of the early years of the United States. He never left this country again.

Note 3) Per Wikipedia:

"A Renaissance man, Peale had expertise not only in painting but also in many diverse fields, including carpentry, dentistry, optometry, shoemaking, and taxidermy. In 1802, John Isaac Hawkins patented the second official physiognotrace, a mechanical drawing device, and partnered with Peale to market it to prospective buyers. Peale sent a watercolor sketch of the physiognotrace, along with a detailed explanation, to Thomas Jefferson. The drawing now sits with the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress.^[

Around 1804, Peale obtained the American patent rights to the polygraph from its inventor John Isaac Hawkins, about the same time as the purchase of one by Thomas Jefferson. Peale and Jefferson collaborated on refinements to this device, which enabled a copy of a handwritten letter to be produced simultaneously with the original.

Peale wrote several books, among which were An Essay on Building Wooden Bridges (1797) and An Epistle to a Friend on the Means of Preserving Health (1803). Peale named all of his sons for artists or scientists, and taught them to paint. Three of them, Rembrandt, Raphaelle, and Titian, became noted artists in their own right."

The following Peale biographical materials are taken from the Askart.com website:

"Born in Chester, Maryland in 1741, Charles Willson Peale became one of the major figures in American art and in other areas such as military figure, naturalist, curator, and inventor. He developed an art and natural history museum that became world famous, especially for the gallery of artwork that had his more than 250 portraits of distinguished Americans. In his home, Peale charged admission to persons to see his depictions of American heroes. By 1788, he opened a natural history museum in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and eventually accumulated over 100,000 items that included paintings, fossils, minerals, stuffed animals, and skeletons.
In 1795, he opened his own art academy, which was not a success, and in 1805, he became one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Academy.

His father was a schoolmaster who died prematurely, and Charles grew up as the eldest son in Annapolis, Maryland and helped support his widowed mother. He apprenticed in saddle making, silver smithing, sign painting and portraiture, and had several lessons with painter John Hesselius to whom he gave a saddle in exchange for instruction. He also studied in Boston with portraitist and silversmith John Singleton Copley and with painter John Smibert. When he returned to Maryland from his Boston training, his talent was recognized by men who were planters and they raised subscription money for him to study with expatriate history and portrait painter, Benjamin West, in London. He also studied the Italian masters in Italy. In 1769 he returned to Annapolis and there became an established portraitist in the neo-classical style learned from Benjamin West. For additional commissions, he traveled to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Williamsburg, Virginia and to Mount Vernon, home of George and Martha Washington. In 1775, he moved to Philadelphia where he hoped to find more portrait subjects. Shortly after, he joined the militia and fought with Washington at the battles of Princeton and Trenton, and during this period created miniatures of army personnel. In 1778, he settled in Philadelphia but continued to visit Baltimore and the eastern shore of Maryland. From 1810 to 1821, he lived as a gentleman farmer near Philadelphia but returned to the city in 1822 to take over the management of the Peale Museum. His fourteen portraits of George Washington include the first authentic likeness of him and include seven portraits painted from life. At Valley Forge where he was painting General Washington, Peale also painted portraits of many other colonial leaders including the Marquis de Lafayette. An outspoken anti-royalist, Peale served in the Revolutionary War and alienated many of his wealthy patrons with their British loyalties. From three marriages, he had three children, many whom became artists. In 1827, Charles Peale died at age 86, the result of catching a cold while crossing a body of water to court a woman."

Source: Michael David Zellman, "300 Years of American Art;" Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"

Per Askart.com, Peale’s works are held in 61 museum collections, including almost all of the major American museums.

Note 3) The foregoing considerations and the following auction records regarding Peale sales warrant the conclusion that the presale estimate of $30,000-$50,000 for this lot and the immediately succeeding Peal portrait of Thomas Fitzgerald lot is reasonable and justifiable.

Title/Subject: Thomas Willing Francis, 1794 Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 26 in. x 22 3/8 in. sold for $30,500 on 1/18/2011 at Keno Auctions, NYC

Title/Subject: Mrs. Sarah Bordley Inscribed and signed. Oil on canvas. in. 25 in. x 19.75 in. sold for $43,750 on 3/4/2010 at Christie’s, NY

Title/Subject: Edward Burd (1751-1833), c. 1820 Signature information not available. Oil on canvas. 28.50 in. x 23.25 in. sold for $40,000 on 11/14/2009-11/15/2009 at Brunk Auctions, Asheville, NC

Title/Subject: James W. DePeyster, 1798 Signed and dated. Oil on canvas. 29.75 in. x 25 in. sold for $104,500 on 12/24/2008 at Christie’s, NY

Title/Subject: John Beale Bordley Signed. Oil on canvas. 25.70 in. x 19.70 in. sold for $265,000 on 5/21/2008 at Christie’s, NY

Title/Subject: Margaret Galbraith Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 26 in. x 20.70 in. sold for $37,000 on 01/18/2008-01/19/2008 at Sotheby’s, NY

Title/Subject: William Sansom Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 20.50 in. x 16.50 in. sold for $37,000 on 01/18/2008-01/19/2008 at Sotheby’s, NY

Title/Subject: George Washington at Princeton Signed. Oil on canvas. 96.50 in. x 61.50 in. sold for $21,296,000 on 1/21/2006 at Christie’s, NY

Title/Subject: James W. DePeyster, 1798 Signed. Oil on canvas. 29.70 in. x 25 in. sold for $84,000 on 5/19/2005 at Christie’s, NY

Title/Subject: Elizabeth DePeyster Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 29.20 in. x 24 in. sold for $57,500 on 10/9/2004 at Pook & Pook, Inc., Downingtown, PA

Title/Subject: George Washington Unsigned. Oil on canvas. 50 in. x 40 in. sold for $6,167,500 on at Christie’s, NY