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拍品專文
Set against a blue sky with puffs of delicate clouds, this portrait of George Washington by Charles Peale Polk is a rare version of the artist’s iconic portrayals of the General. Polk’s portraits of the first president which survive in the greatest numbers are based upon the bust-size “Convention” portrait by Polk’s uncle, adopted father and mentor, Charles Willson Peale (1787, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia). The present lot is among a small group of works by the artist in which Washington is painted facing the viewer’s left, a pose taken from Peale’s Presidential portrait (1795, The New York Historical) and to which Polk substituted Washington’s civilian dress in favor of his general’s uniform.
Like in his more widely known portraits, such as the example sold at Christie’s, New York, 19 January 2023, lot 205, Polk adopts a half-length format. This composition allows the artist to show more of Washington’s uniform, featuring the three-star epaulets designating his rank as Commander-in-Chief. The present portrait’s simplified, yet vibrant background of blue distinguishes it from those with battleground references or dark settings. Here, Polk’s use of color creates a dramatic composition that allows for a greater focus on the subject and in particular, emphasizes his uniform and the yellow color of his coat and its details. This striking pose is seen in only five other portraits by Polk recorded in the Frick Art Reference Library, including one in the collection of Yale University Art Museum (acc. no. 1943.57). The present lot therefore presents an exceptional opportunity to acquire a highly distinctive likeness of the nation’s Founding Father by one of the foremost portraitists of the time.
Papers previously accompanying the portrait provide evidence of the portrait’s first owner and its later ownership: Williamsport, Maryland. Dr. Young—106 yrs old [illeg.], left it to Dr Charles Macgill, surgeon of the Confederate Army, who left it to his son Barlow Macgill who left it to Charles Macgill Bridges/ [illeg.] Peirce 1884 [with later additions]. The age and profession of "Dr. Young” indicates that he was Dr. Samuel Young (d. 1838) of Hagerstown, Maryland. Young was born in Ireland, where he studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin and then trained at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. After marrying Ann Richardson Young, the couple immigrated to America prior to the Revolution and settled in Hagerstown. Young lived into very old age, with one announcement of his death titled “A Centenarian Physician” (The Public Ledger, Philadelphia, PA, August 1, 1838) and another accounting him living to 108 years old (The Morning Herald, Hagerstown, MD, January 30, 1945). One obituary describes him as one of the “most respectable inhabitant of Maryland’ and as having ‘witness many of the stirring scenes of the revolution” (The Sun, Baltimore, MD, July 27, 1838). Perhaps Young’s experiences of the Revolution prompted his interest in George Washington, motivating him to honor the General with a purchase of his portrait. Charles Peale Polk is recorded spending time in Hagerstown, and he advertised his services as a portrait artist in the August 23rd 1798 edition of the Maryland Herald and Elizabeth-Town Advertiser, in which “He solicits the public patronage and flatters himself that his talents and moderate prices will ensure encouragement”. It is likely Young bought the present painting directly from the artist.
Young and his wife had a son John Richardson Young (1782-1804) who followed in his father’s footsteps by pursuing a career in medicine. He studied under chemist James Woodhouse and physician Benjamin Rush and is remembered as the “first” American biochemist with his pioneering research on digestion. His thesis argued that it occurred through acid rather fermentation – the prevailing belief at the time. Only a year after the publication of his findings, John died at the age of twenty-two from tuberculosis, along with his two sisters.
With no immediate heirs to inherit his property, Samuel Young gifted his portrait of Washington to his colleague, Dr. Charles MacGill (1806–1881). MacGill was born and raised in Hagerstown, where he helped establish the local Hagerstown Herald paper and served the community with his medical practice. In September 1861, as a newspaper recounts, MacGill “was at home with his family at Hagerstown, [when] the rattling of sabers and the tramp of soldiers were heard. In a moment a squad of soldiers entered his house” and he was subsequently taken as prisoner (John Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland (Philadelphia, 1882), vol. 2, p. 1139). He was held as a political prisoner of the Lincoln administration for his Southern sympathies and spent a year at Fort Warren in Boston. After his release, he established a Confederate hospital in Hagerstown and then joined the Confederate Medical Corps and was appointed as a surgeon. After the war, MacGill moved his practice to Virginia and settled in Richmond.
The portrait descended in the MacGill family to Dr. Charles’s son William Daniel ‘Barlow’ MacGill (1835-1889) who served in the Confederate Army. In a note dated 1930 that also descended with the portrait, Lizzie Ragan (Macgill) Bridges (1846-1930), wife of Clifford Cabell Bridges and sister of Barlow, recalls growing up with the portrait and notes that her brother left the portrait to her son and Barlow’s nephew, Charles MacGill Bridges (1884-1945), even though he was a child at the time. The portrait was subsequently donated by his heirs to Preservation Virginia in 1980.
Like in his more widely known portraits, such as the example sold at Christie’s, New York, 19 January 2023, lot 205, Polk adopts a half-length format. This composition allows the artist to show more of Washington’s uniform, featuring the three-star epaulets designating his rank as Commander-in-Chief. The present portrait’s simplified, yet vibrant background of blue distinguishes it from those with battleground references or dark settings. Here, Polk’s use of color creates a dramatic composition that allows for a greater focus on the subject and in particular, emphasizes his uniform and the yellow color of his coat and its details. This striking pose is seen in only five other portraits by Polk recorded in the Frick Art Reference Library, including one in the collection of Yale University Art Museum (acc. no. 1943.57). The present lot therefore presents an exceptional opportunity to acquire a highly distinctive likeness of the nation’s Founding Father by one of the foremost portraitists of the time.
Papers previously accompanying the portrait provide evidence of the portrait’s first owner and its later ownership: Williamsport, Maryland. Dr. Young—106 yrs old [illeg.], left it to Dr Charles Macgill, surgeon of the Confederate Army, who left it to his son Barlow Macgill who left it to Charles Macgill Bridges/ [illeg.] Peirce 1884 [with later additions]. The age and profession of "Dr. Young” indicates that he was Dr. Samuel Young (d. 1838) of Hagerstown, Maryland. Young was born in Ireland, where he studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin and then trained at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. After marrying Ann Richardson Young, the couple immigrated to America prior to the Revolution and settled in Hagerstown. Young lived into very old age, with one announcement of his death titled “A Centenarian Physician” (The Public Ledger, Philadelphia, PA, August 1, 1838) and another accounting him living to 108 years old (The Morning Herald, Hagerstown, MD, January 30, 1945). One obituary describes him as one of the “most respectable inhabitant of Maryland’ and as having ‘witness many of the stirring scenes of the revolution” (The Sun, Baltimore, MD, July 27, 1838). Perhaps Young’s experiences of the Revolution prompted his interest in George Washington, motivating him to honor the General with a purchase of his portrait. Charles Peale Polk is recorded spending time in Hagerstown, and he advertised his services as a portrait artist in the August 23rd 1798 edition of the Maryland Herald and Elizabeth-Town Advertiser, in which “He solicits the public patronage and flatters himself that his talents and moderate prices will ensure encouragement”. It is likely Young bought the present painting directly from the artist.
Young and his wife had a son John Richardson Young (1782-1804) who followed in his father’s footsteps by pursuing a career in medicine. He studied under chemist James Woodhouse and physician Benjamin Rush and is remembered as the “first” American biochemist with his pioneering research on digestion. His thesis argued that it occurred through acid rather fermentation – the prevailing belief at the time. Only a year after the publication of his findings, John died at the age of twenty-two from tuberculosis, along with his two sisters.
With no immediate heirs to inherit his property, Samuel Young gifted his portrait of Washington to his colleague, Dr. Charles MacGill (1806–1881). MacGill was born and raised in Hagerstown, where he helped establish the local Hagerstown Herald paper and served the community with his medical practice. In September 1861, as a newspaper recounts, MacGill “was at home with his family at Hagerstown, [when] the rattling of sabers and the tramp of soldiers were heard. In a moment a squad of soldiers entered his house” and he was subsequently taken as prisoner (John Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland (Philadelphia, 1882), vol. 2, p. 1139). He was held as a political prisoner of the Lincoln administration for his Southern sympathies and spent a year at Fort Warren in Boston. After his release, he established a Confederate hospital in Hagerstown and then joined the Confederate Medical Corps and was appointed as a surgeon. After the war, MacGill moved his practice to Virginia and settled in Richmond.
The portrait descended in the MacGill family to Dr. Charles’s son William Daniel ‘Barlow’ MacGill (1835-1889) who served in the Confederate Army. In a note dated 1930 that also descended with the portrait, Lizzie Ragan (Macgill) Bridges (1846-1930), wife of Clifford Cabell Bridges and sister of Barlow, recalls growing up with the portrait and notes that her brother left the portrait to her son and Barlow’s nephew, Charles MacGill Bridges (1884-1945), even though he was a child at the time. The portrait was subsequently donated by his heirs to Preservation Virginia in 1980.